NSABRE,O.R 


Wh&t  (Sod  bath  ioinr5  toa*  ibtr. 
inarr.Bt.tott.XI 


s  '*   ft 
V 


.     •*• .  *  =-. 


UCSB   LIBRARY 


Rev.  Cornelius  O'Connor, 
, 

CAL. 


]V[ARRIAGE. 


CONFERENCES 

DELIVERED   AT 

NOTRE  DAME,  PARIS. 
BY 

VERY  REV.  PERE  MONSABRE,  o.P. 


Translated  from   the   French, 

BY 
M.   HOPPER. 


ZSHHj  tfjr  SluHjor's  S-jjrnal  Devmisston. 


NEW   YORK,   CINCINNATI,   CHICAGO  : 
BENZIGER      BROTHERS, 

Printers  to  the  Holy  Apostolic  See. 
1890. 


flibil  ©bstat. 

H.  A.  BRANN,  D.D. 

Imprimatur. 

*  MICHAEL  AUGUSTINE, 

Archbishop  of  New  York. 
NEW  YORK,  January  8,  1890. 


Copyright,  1890,  by  BENZICER  BROTHERS. 


PREFACE. 

THE  fame  of  Father  Monsabre  as  a  pulpit- 
orator  is  world-wide.  He  holds  the  same  place 
to-day  in  the  school  of  sacred  oratory  that  Fa- 
ther Lacordaire  held,  and  like  the  illustrious  pane- 
gyrist of  O'Connell,  he  has  filled  the  first  pulpit 
of  the  Church  in  France. 

The  Lenten  conferences  in  the  Cathedral  of 
Notre  Dame,  Paris,  have  been  preached  by  Pere 
Monsabre  since  1872  with  singular  success.  They 
are  remarkable  for  learning  and  piety,  and  have 
had  a  large  circulation  in  France  and  Italv. 
The  conferences  on  "  Marriage "  have  an  ever- 
present  interest,  and  the  following  translation 
of  them  will  afford  the  English-speaking  world 
an  opportunity  to  read  the  best  thoughts  of 
the  greatest  of  modern  preachers  on  Marriage, 
Divorce,  etc. 


CONTENTS. 


CONFERENCE  PAGE 

I.  THE  SANCTITY  OF  MARRIAGE,  7 

II.  THE  CONJUGAL  TIE,  35 

III.  DIVORCE,  Gl 

IV.  LEGISLATION  ON  MARRIAGE,  88 
V.  PROFANATION  OF  MARRIAGE,  -  115 

VI.  CELIBACY  AND  VIRGINITY,  -  138 

INDEX  OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  ERRORS  CONTRARY  TO  THE  DOG- 
MAS SET  FORTH  IN  THIS  VOLUME,  -    169 

ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS, 223 


CONFERENCE  I. 
of 


MY  LORD  '  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  —  There  is  no  need 
of  my  announcing  to  you  the  subject  on  which  I 
must  speak  this  year.  You  know  it.  In  the  in- 
teresting study  of  the  grace  of  Jesus  Christ  which 
has  engaged  us  for  five  years,  there  is  only  one 
more  sacrament  for  us  to  examine.  It  is  marriage, 
the  second  of  the  social  sacraments,  ordained  for 
the  reparation  of  the  losses  which  Christian  so- 
ciety suffers  from  the  blows  of  death,  and  for  the 
education  of  the  holy  race  of  the  children  of  God. 

As  the  natural  family  is  the  foundation  of  all 
civil  society,  so  the  Christian  family  is  the  foun- 
dation of  that  great  spiritual  society  which  is 
collected,  governed,  and  made  perfect  by  the  priest- 
hood. The  source  of  the  natural  family  is  the 
conjugal  union  of  man  and  woman,  but  in  order 
to  make  that  union  the  source  of  the  Christian 
family,  God  has  transferred  it  from  the  world  of 
nature  to  the  world  of  grace,  by  raising  it  to  the 
dignity  of  a  sacrament. 

This,  gentlemen,  is  an  important  fact.  It  will 
serve  as  a  principle  to  determine  clearly  the  condi- 
tion of  those  united  under  the  law  of  grace,  and  to 
refute  the  errors  of  those  who  pretend  to  reduce 

1  Monseigneur  Richard,  Archbishop  of  Paris. 


8  The  Sanctity  of  Marriage. 

marriage  to  the  condition  of  a  profane  thing  and 
to  deliver  it  up  to  the  sacrilegious  caprices  of  hu- 
man legislation. 

Allow  me  to  make  a  preliminary  declaration  in 
order  to  clear  myself  beforehand  from  the  accu- 
sations of  those  who,  after  having  heard  me,  may 
see  in  me  only  a  critic.  No  ^one  respects  human 
laws  more  than  I  do,  but  this  respect  is  subordi- 
nate to  my  reverence  for  divine  truth  and  eternal 
justice.  If  human  laws  contradict  these  two  sa- 
cred principles,  it  is  not  I  who  revolt  against  them, 
it  is  not  I  who  condemn  them  :  it  is  truth,  it  is 
justice,  of  which  I  am  an  apostle,  and  which  no  fear 
shall  ever  make  me  betray. 

The  subjects  of  which  we  shall  treat  during 
this  short  course  of  sermons  are  :  the  sanctity  of 
marriage,  the  conjugal  tie,  divorce,  legislation 
on  marriage,  the  profanation  of  marriage.  We 
shall  finally  speak  of  the  states  of  celibacy  and 
virginity,  those  most  delicate,  most  pure,  and  most 
glorious  ornaments  of  society,  of  which  marriage 
prepares  the  members. 

To-day  we  shall  consider  the  sanctity  of  mar- 
riage in  its  primitive  institution  by  God,  the  Crea- 
tor of  humanity,  and  in  its  exaltation  by  Christ, 
the  author  of  the  sacraments. 

My  Lord,  I  have  received  too  kind  and  too 
precious  encouragements  from  the  place  where 
Your  Grace  to-day  presides  over  this  large  and 
distinguished  assembly,  not  to  offer  to  the  vener- 
able prelate  who  gave  them  to  me  the  public  hom- 
age of  my  sincere  regret  and  of  my  filial  gratitude. 


The  Sanctity  of  Marriage.  9 

One  thing  alone  consoles  me  for  his  absence,  name- 
ly, to  continue,  under  the  auspices  of  Your  Grace, 
the  work  which  your  venerable  predecessor  con- 
fided to  me  ;  for  I  am  sure  to  receive  from  your 
paternal  heart  the  same  kindness  and  affection,  and 
from  your  sacred  hands  the  same  blessing. 


After  having  established  the  foundations  of  the 
earth  and  ordered  its  elements,  God  resolved  to 
adorn  it,  and  created  those  living  agencies  to 
whom  He  gave  the  command  to  increase  and  mul- 
tiply :  Crescite  et  multiplicamini. '  This  short  epi- 
thalamium  inaugurated  universal  marriages  in 
the  plains  and  in  the  air,  on  the  mountains  and  in 
the  depths  of  the  sea.  It  preceded  the  appearance 
of  humanity  by  a  long  epoch.  Discreet  hymen 
of  flowers  in  the  depths  of  their  scented  corollas, 
loving  meetings  of  living  creatures,  who  move 
about  seeking  for  companions  to  propagate  their 
species  in  new  families.  This  union  of  pairs  and 
this  multiplication  of  life  is  full  of  venerable  mys- 
tery, because  God  has  put  in  it  something  of  His 
own  infinite  power  and  eternal  vitality.  In  obedi- 
ence to  the  divine  command,  individuals  form  the 
completion  each  of  the  other,  in  order  to  become 
one  single  principle  of  life.  Partners  of  the  fecund- 
ity of  God,  they  perpetuate  that  which  must  perish, 
and  prolong  through  time  and  space  the  effica- 
ciousness of  the  act  of  creation. 

1  Gen.  i.  22. 


io  The  Sanctity  of  Marriage. 

This  mystery,  gentlemen,  grows  with  life.  God 
had  adorned  the  earth  only  to  prepare  it  to  re- 
ceive its  king.  He  calls  him  from  within  Himself : 
"Let  us  make  man,"  He  says:  Faciamus  lio- 
minem  ;  let  us  make  him  to  be  master  :  Fitcitiinus 
ut  prczsit;1  and  He  makes  him  after  His  own 
image  and  likeness,  so  great,  so  beautiful,  so  per- 
fect, that  all  living  creatures  shnll  come  by  and 
by  to  his  feet,  shall  recognize  his  dominion  and 
receive  from  him  their  appropriate  names. 2  Man 
has  all  that  is  needful  in  order  to  command,  and 
yet  God  pronounces  that  it  is  not  good  for  him  to 
remain  alone,  and  that  He  must  make  him  a  help 
like  unto  himself :  Non  est  bonum  esse  hominem 
solum  ;  fiuiamus  ci  adjut  or  him  simile  sibi.3 

I  have  already  told  you,  gentlemen,  when  we 
were  studying  the  origin  of  humanity,  that  man 
should  imitate  the  principle  of  his  being,  the 
tendency  of  which  is  to  communicate  itself ,  because 
he  cannot  keep  to  himself  all  the  germs  of  life 
which. God  has  placed  within  him.  According  to 
the  profound  reflection  of  St.  Thomas,  the  high 
functions  of  human  intelligence  should  not  be 
sacrificed  to  the  lower  functions,  whence  the  life 
of  the  body  springs ;  therefore  "  a  help  "  is  need- 
ful for  man,  in  whom  all  the  passive  power  of  par- 
entage shall  reside,  while  he,  as  sovereign  dispen- 
ser, retains  all  the  active  strength.  "  There- 
fore let  us  make  for  man,"  said  the  Lord,  "  a  help 

1  Gen.  i.  26. 
*  Ibid.  ii.  19,  20. 
3  Ibid.  ii.  18, 


The  Sanctity  of  Marriage.  \  I 

like  unto  himself :  "  Faciamus  ci  adjutorium  simile 
sibi.  ' 

Whence  shall  come  this  help  ?  From  the  dust 
from  which  man  sprang  ?  No  !  Man  would  cease 
to  be,  like  God,  the  only  and  first  principle  of  the 
life  of  his  race  if  the  human  being  to  be  united  to 
him  were  not  taken  from  his  side.  "  Sleep,  My 
son,"  said  God,  "  sleep."  And  under  the  influence 
of  a  divine  magnetism,  Adam,  lying  down  on  the 
flowers  of  Paradise,  is  overcome  by  a  mysterious 
sleep,  during  which  God  takes  away  one  of  his 
ribs,  reclothes  it  with  flesh,  and  makes  for  this  part 
of  animate  man  another  soul,  woman,  the  charm- 
ing and  chaste  spouse  of  the  slumberer.  2 

All  astonished  at  the  life  she  has  just  received 

woman  waits To  the  marriage !  to  the 

marriage !  King  of  the  world,  awake !  Adam 
awakes.  He  beholds  with  his  eyes  her  whom  he 
has  seen  in  a  prophetic  dream,  and  understands 
that  in  her  shall  be  accomplished  his  perfection. 
He  is  intelligence,  she  is  love ;  he  is  thought,  she 
is  sentiment ;  he  is  majesty,  she  is  grace ;  he  is 
strength,  she  is  gentleness ;  he  is  command,  she 
is  influence  ;  he  is  the  sower  of  life,  she  is  the  fer- 
tile earth  where  life  shall  germinate.  He  admires 
her,  he  is  softened,  he  is  inflamed,  and  from  his 
heart,  filled  with  a  new  love,  bursts  forth  the  cele- 
brated epithalamium  which  reveals  to  the  world  of 
the  future  the  essence  and  the  holy  laws  of  mar- 

1  Cf.  Exposition  of  Catholic  Dogma,  conference  26  :  Humanity  in 
Adam,  part  I. 

2  Gen.  ii.  21,  22. 


1 2  The  Sanctify  of  Marriage. 

riage :  "  This  is  bone  of  my  bones  and  flesh  of  my 
flesh.  She  shall  be  called  Woman,  because  she  \vas 
taken  out  of  man.  Wherefore  a  man  shall  leave  fa- 
ther and  mother,  and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife,  and 
they  shall  be  two  in  one  flesh."  '  To  this  cry  of  love 
God  replies  by  a  blessing  .whence  humanity  springs, 
and  which  submits  to  man's  dominion  the  creatures 
which  He  has  already  blessed  and  multiplied  :  "  In- 
crease and  multiply,  and  fill  the  earth,  and  subdue 
it,  and  rule  over  "  all  that  it  contains :  Crescitcct  mul- 
tiplicannni  ct  replete  terram,  et  subjicite  earn,  et  doini- 
namini  ...  * 

Such  was  the  first  marriage,  the  typical  marriage. 
I  beg  you  to  consider  well  its  essence,  for  to  this 
fundamental  truth  are  allied  those  important  ques- 
tions of  rights  and  duties  of  which  we  shall  pres- 
ently speak. 

According  to  current  opinion,  the  essence  of 
marriage  consists  in  the  exchange  of  two  free  acts 
by  which  a  man  and  a  woman  give  themselves  each 
to  the  other,  in  order  to  reproduce  their  own  life, 
to  create  a  family,  and  to  perfect  themselves  mu- 
tually in  one  common  life.  I  am  not  afraid  of 
making  a  mistake  when  I  affirm  that,  whilst  taking 
into  account  the  blessings  of  the  Church,  to  which 
you  attribute  the  virtue  of  giving  a  sacred  charac- 
ter to  the  conjugal  union,  the  greater  number  of 

1  Hoc  nunc  os  ex  ossibus  meis,  et  caro  de  carne  mea.  Haec  voca- 
bitur  Virago, quoniam  cle  viro  sumpta  est.  Quamobrem  relinquet  ho- 
mo patrem  suum  et  mntrem,  et  adhserebit  uxori  suae,  et  erunt  duo  in 
carne  una. — Gen.  ii.  23,  24. 

*  Ibid.  i.  28. 


The  Sanctity  of  Marriage,  1 3 

you  have  no  other  idea  of  marriage.  It  is  a  pure 
and  simple  contract,  of  which  the  whole  essence 
consists  in  the  reciprocal  act  of  the  giving  and  ac- 
cepting of  persons.  Allow  me  to  tell  you,  there  is 
an  error  in  this. 

Assuredly,  marriage  is  a  contract,  but  a  contract 
which  in  no  way  resembles  other  human  contracts. 
It  is  the  most  exalted,  the  most  venerable,  I  would 
almost  say,  the  most  extraordinary  of  contracts. 
What  man  therein  transmits  is  not  one  of  those 
subordinate  benefits  which  are  the  accessories  of 
his  person  or  of  his  life  ;  it  is  not  his  field,  his  house, 
his  flock,  his  fortune,  his  labor,  his  services,  the 
fruit  of  his  intelligence  and  industry  ;  it  is  himself, 
his  own  person,  his  living  person,  and  with  his 
person,  the  benefits  which  depend  upon  and  are 
allied  to  it,  and  on  his  person,  the  most  delicate 
and  intimate  rights. 

Man  has  dared  to  lay  hands  on  his  fellow-man. 
Abusing  his  strength,  he  has  seized  on  human  lives 
powerless  to  defend  themselves  against  his  brutal- 
ity :  he  has  created  slavery.  "  They  are  mine,"  said 
he  formerly  of  the  miserable  creatures  whom  he 
enslaved  to  serve  his  wants,  his  greed,  his  caprices, 
his  passions,  and  his  vices.  "  Mine ! "  ferocious  and 
sacrilegious  cry,  which  recalls  the  saddest  days  of 
humanity.  "  Mine  !  "  Oh,  no  !  Man  has  not  the 
right  to  say  that  of  another  man.  Two  beings  alone 
can  say  one  to  the  other,  "  thou  art  mine,"  because 
they  have  freely  and  entirely  given  themselves  to 
each  other.— Thou  art  mine  !  I  am  thine ! — it  is  the 
cry  which  thrilled  through  Eden  when  the  father 


14  The  Sanctity  of  Marriage. 

and  mother  of  the  human  race  were  married  under 
the  eye  of  God. 

Man  and  woman  give  themselves  to  each  other 
by  the  exchange  of  their  will  and  consent.  But 
why  ?  Is  it  only  in  order  to  obey  the  divine  com- 
mand which  wills  that  the  creative  act,  of  which 
humanity  is  the  issue,  should  be  indefinitely  pro- 
longed throughout  the  ages?  Is  it  only  for  the 
happiness  of  seeing  themselves  live  again  in  the 
offspring  which  resembles  them  ?  Is  it  only  for  the 
honor  of  preserving  in  the  bosom  of  human  society 
a  centre  of  life  on  which  its  existence  and  strength 
depend?  No,  the  multiplication  of  species  is  an 
honor  to  marriage,  but  it  is  to  a  far  higher,  more 
delicate  and  intimate  benefit  that  the  conjugal  union 
tends.  This  benefit  is  the  intermingling  of  two 
lives  to  form  one ;  the  mutual  perfecting  of  these 
lives  each  by  the  other.  It  is  the  union  of  mind 
and  heart :  Cor  unum  et  anuna  una.  It  is  one  dis- 
position giving  or  imprinting  on  the  other  that 
wherein  it  is  weak,  natural  qualities  moderating 
and  balancing  each  other,  virtues  communicated 
from  one  to  the  other  in  harmonious  degrees. 

All  these  perfections  are  for  the  benefit  of  the  hus- 
band and  the  wife  who  acquire  them,  and  still  more 
for  the  benefit  of  the  children  whom  they  shall  bring 
up  after  having  given  them  life.  To  the  material 
birth  succeeds  a  birth  far  more  noble  and  in  more 
need  of  care:  the  birth  of  an  intellectual,  moral, 
and  religious  life.  To  this  work  the  two  perfected 
lives  of  man  and  woman  apply  their  virtue ;  and 
this  work  is  the  sublime  end  of  their  contract.  We 


The  Sanctity  of  Marriage.  \  5 

can  learn  from  the  manner  in  which  the  contract 
is  carried  out  the  influence  of  the  motive  which 
decided  the  union  of  will  and  consent.  Between 
man,  woman,  and  child  there  is  a  fellowship  of  love, 
which  love  alone  has  been  able  to  found. 

Not  that  love  which  belongs  merely  to  the  senses, 
a  blind  and  passing  passion  that  fades  as  soon  as 
it  is  satisfied,  but  the  love  of  the  heart,  of  a  wise 
heart,  illuminated  by  reason,  of  a  heart  which  is 
not  foolishly  smitten  with  ephemeral  charms,  that 
the  eyes  alone  can  enjoy,  but  which  seeks  in  respect 
and  esteem  the  seat  of  a  faithful  and  lasting  attach- 
ment. 

Such  is  the  matrimonial  contract  in  its  object, 
its  end,  its  intention.  It  makes  one  understand 
the  difference  between  the  two  benedictions  by 
which  God  communicates  His  fecundity  to  living 
things.  To  plants  and  animals  He  says  only,  "  In- 
crease and  multiply  :  "  Crescite  ct  multiplicamini.  It 
is  sufficient.  The  immovable  and  silent  flower 
allows  the  fertile  dust  which  shall  reproduce  it  to 
fall,  or  itself  unconsciously  appropriates  it;  the 
animal  obeys  the  unerring  laws  of  instinct  which 
impel  it  to  seek  a  companion ;  its  fecundity  is  the 
result  of  a  brute  companionship,  and  its  transient 
union  in  no  way  changes  its  nature.  But  to  man 
and  woman,  who  use  their  reason  and  their  heart 
in  the  choice  of  the  being  to  whom  they  unite  their 
life ;  to  man  and  woman,  who  freely  and  entirely 
give  themselves  to  each  other ;  to  man  and  woman, 
who  know  themselves  to  be  participators  in  the 
work  of  God ;  to  man  and  woman,  who  compre- 


1 6  The  Sanctity  of  Marriage. 

hend  the  great  honor  of  parentage ;  to  man  and 
woman,  who  are  perfected  and  communicate  their 
perfection  in  conjugal  society ;  to  man  and  woman, 
who  are  not  united  like  the  creatures  of  an  inferior 
species,  but  who  marry — to  them  God  owed  an 
ampler  and  more  glorious  benediction.  God  had 
already  raised  the  human  pair  to  the  summit  of 
nature  ;  He  now  adds  the  empire  of  the  world  to  the 
promise  of  fecundity  and  to  the  commandment  of 
reproduction :  "  Increase  and  multiply,  and  fill  the 
earth,  and  subdue  it,  and  rule  over  the  fishes  of  the 
sea,  and  the  fowls  of  the  air,  and  all  living  creatures 
that  move  upon  the  earth  :  "  Crescite,  et  multiplica- 
mini,  et  replete  terram,  et  subjicite  earn,  ct  dominamini 
piscibus  marts,  et  volatilibus  caeli,  et  universis  animan- 
tibus,  qua  moventur  super  terram. '  Such  was  the 
worthy  consecration  of  that  venerable  and  extra- 
ordinary contract  the  object  of  which  is  so  pre- 
cious, the  end  so  noble,  the  motive  so  pure  and  so 
sweet. 

Nevertheless,  this  contract  is  not  the  very  es- 
sence of  marriage.  If  theologians  have  called 
marriage  a  contract,  it  is  in  order  to  declare  its 
cause,4  and  not  to  determine  its  essence.  You  ask, 
what, then,  is  its  essence?  Listen  well  and  under- 
stand fully,  for  we  are  now  laying  down  a  principle 
of  supreme  importance  for  the  whole  of  our  doc- 
trine on  matrimony.  The  essence  of  marriage  is 
the  union,  the  obligation,  the  tie  resulting  from  per- 

1  Gen.  i.  28. 

2  Causa  matrimonii  regulariter  est  mutuus  consensus  per  verba  de 
praesenti  expressa. — Cone.  Flor. 


The  Sanctity  of  Marriage,  17 

feet  mutual  consent.1  Marriage  has  been  defined 
by  law  "to  be  the  marital  union  of  man  and  woman 
between  legitimate  persons,  holding  them  bound 
together  in  one  common  life  "  :  viri  et  mulieris  con- 
junctio  niaritalis,  inter  legitimas  pcrsonas,  individnam 
vita  consuetudinem  retinens.  This  definition  has 
passed  from  law  into  theology,  and  from  theology 
into  the  typical  catechism,  where  we  should  seek 
the  pure  idea  of  Christian  dogma. 2  It  is  the  legal 
and  scholastic  translation  of  the  poetic  effusion  of 
our  first  parent  when  he  exclaimed  :  "  A  man  shall 
leave  father  and  mother  and  shall  cleave  to  his 
wife,  and  they  shall  be  two  in  one  flesh  "  :  Eterunt 
duo  in  carne  una. 

You  will  say  to  me,  no  doubt,  that  from  perfect 
mutual  agreement  there  results  an  obligation,  a 
tie,  and  that  it  is  sufficient  to  determine  the  es- 
sence of  marriage,  if  we  are  content  to  call  it  a 
contract.  Pardon  me,  no,  it  is  not  sufficient,  for 
the  tie  which  is  the  result  of  the  matrimonial  con- 
tract is  not  the  same  as  that  which  is  the  result  of 
other  contracts. 

1  St.  Thomas  says  of  the  matrimonial    union  that  it  is  made  ad 
modum  obligationis  in  contmctibns  materialibus  (Supp.  quoest.  45,  a.  2). 
But  this  union  is  marriage  itself:  conjunctio  potest  acdpi  pro  ipsa  rela- 
tione  qua  est  matrimunmm  (Ibid,  qutest.  48,  a.  5,  ad.  2).  — Docendum 
est,   quamvis  hoec   omnia   in   perfecto   matrimonio   insint,  consensus 
videlicet  interior,  pactio  externa  verbis  expressa.  obligatio  et  vinculum 
quod  ex  pactione  efficitur,  et  conjugum  copulatio,  qua  matrimonium 
consummatur  ;  nihil  horum  tamcn  matrimonii  vim  et  rationem  habere, 
nisi  obligationem  islarn,  cl  nexnin  qui  conjiinctionisvocabuloappellalur. 
— Catechism.  Trid.,  part  2,  T)e  matrimonii  sacramento,  no.  5. 

2  Institut.  i.  9 ;  Magist.  Sent. ;  Catechism.  Cone.  Trid.,  loc.  cit. 


1 8  The  Sanctity  of  Marriage. 

In  human  agreements,  obligation  is  to  some 
extent  confounded  with  consent,  because  it  abso- 
lutely depends  upon  it.  All  the  customary  con- 
tracts of  social  life :  sales,  exchanges,  leases,  service, 
bequests,  and  the  like,  can  be  cancelled  at  the 
will  of  those  who  made  them.  For  a  contract  to 
be  broken  and  for  its  obligation  to  cease,  it  is  suffi- 
cient that  the  wills  which  had  agreed  in  one  sense 
should  then  agree  in  an  opposite  sense.  '  It  is  not 
so  in  the  matrimonial  contract.  The  man  and  the 
woman  who  marry  give  themselves  each  to  the 
other,  but  this  gift,  once  made,  depends  no  longer 
on  mutual  agreement.  The  united  pair  will  say 
in  vain,  we  were  deceived,  life  to  both  of  us  is  a 
burden  too  heavy  for  our  weary  shoulders,  let 
us  withdraw  from  our  agreement.  They  cannot 
withdraw,  for  they  are  united,  not  by  the  strength 
of  their  wills  alone,  but  by  a  mysterious  power, 
which  has  seized  them,  bound  them  together  in  a 
common  life,  and  on  which  henceforth  they  de- 
pend. This  mysterious  power  is  the  very  hand 
ot  God,  the  author  of  our  nature,  giving  to  the 
conjugal  union  a  religious  and  sacred  character  in 
which  men  can  change  nothing.  *  This  character 
is  not  an  accidental  addition  to  the  contract.  It 
arises  from  the  contract  itself;  it  is  the  special 

1  Qtur  consensn  contrahnniiir  contrario  consensu  dissolvnntur.      This 
is,  says  Pothier,  a  principle  common  to  all  mutual  contracts.  —  Contract 
of  Marriage  (Esfwitsals,')  part  2,  chap.  vii. 

2  Conjunctio  potest  accipi  pro  ipsa  relatione,  quse  est  matrimonium, 
et  tails  semper  est  a  Deo.—Summ.  Theol.  supp.,  qunest.  48,  a.  2,  ad. 
2. 


Tfic  Sanctity  of  Marriage.  19 

mark  which  distinguishes  and  separates  it  from  all 
human  contracts.  l  Marriage  is  holy  in  its  first 
institution  :  "  it  is  so  by  its  own  strength  and 
nature,  and  of  itself, "  says  a  memorable  encycli- 
cal :  Matrimonium  cst  sua  vt,  sua  natura,  sua 
spontc  sacrum"  a  Antiquity  bears  witness  to  this 
sanctity.  Consult  its  monuments,  study  the  man- 
ners and  institutions  of  the  nations  best  governed 
and  most  skilled  in  the  knowledge  of  law  and 
justice,  and  you  will  see,  as  by  a  kind  of  antici- 
pation of  the  mysteries  of  the  future,  marriage 
appear  under  the  form  of  an  act  permeated  with 
religion  and  sanctity,  and  the  nuptials  consecrated 
by  ceremonies  of  worship,  by  the  authority  of 
pontiffs  and  the  ministry  of  priests ;  so  great  has 
been  the  power  of  the  voice  of  nature,  of  the 
remembrance  of  our  origin,  and  of  the  conscience 
of  the  human  race  even  on  the  souls  whom  reve- 
lation has  not  enlightened.  Ita  magnam  in  animis 
ccelcsti  doctrina  carcntibus  vim  habuit  natura  rernm, 
meuioria  originum,  conscicntia  generis  humani.  3 
Gentlemen,  it  is  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  Leo  XIII. 

1  Inest  in  eo  sacrum  et  religiosum  quidclam,  non  adventitium,  sed 
ingenitum,  non  ab  hominibus  acceptum,  sed  natura  insitum. — Leonis 
XIII.  Encyclic.  Arcanum  divinte  sapientig. 

8  Ibid. 

3  Testantur  et  monumenta  antiquitatis  et  mores  atque  instituta  po- 
pulorum  qui  ad  humanitatem  magis  accesserant,  et  exquisitiore  juris 
et  aequitatis  cognitione  pnestiterant :  quorum  omnium  mentibus  in- 
formatum  anticipatumque  fuisse  constat,  ut  cum  de  matrimonio  cogi- 
tarent,  forma  occurreret  rei  cum  religione  et  sanctitate  conjunctoe. 
Hanc  ob  causam  nuptiae  apud  illos  non  sine  cceremoniis  religionum, 
auctoritate  pontificum,  ministerio  sacerdotum  fieri  scepe  consueverunt. 
Ita  magnam,  etc. — Ibid. 


2O  The  Sanctity  of  Marriage. 

who  has  just  spoken.  His  infallible  authority 
reminds  us  that  nature  has  made  marriage  a  holy 
thing,  a  thing  more  holy  still  if  we  consider  the 
dignity  of  the  sacrament. 

n. 

The  divine  institution  of  marriage  had  for  its 
end,  not  only  the  reproduction  of  human  nature 
in  its  species,  but  also  a  perpetuation  of  a  race 
holy  as  the  pair  who  should  beget  it.  We  can 
conjecture  what  it  would  have  been  in  a  state  of 
innocence,  if  we  remember  the  original  perfection 
of  our  first  parents.  The  nobleness,  majesty,  and 
grace  of  their  bodies,  the  complete  harmony  of 
line,  feature,  tone,  and  movement,  moulded  by 
God  Himself,  and  animated  with  a  breath  of  life 
which  manifests  itself  through  an  immaculate 
flesh,  radiates  on  a  royal  brow,  and  makes  us  ad- 
mire in  its  virginal  beauty  the  double  expansion 
of  grace  and  of  a  perfect  nature.  A  body  free 
from  the  humiliating  servitude  of  matter  and  giv- 
ing up  to  a  contemplative  life  the  leisure  of  a  full 
expansion ;  a  soul  illumined  with  divine  knowl- 
edge, sensitive  to  the  touch  of  grace,  accustomed 
to  the  visits  and  love  of  God,  invested  with  sover- 
eign empire  over  the  creatures  of  this  world. 
Happy  pair,  bound  by  an  unquenchable  love  in 
a  place  of  delights,  and  for  whom  all  is  holy,  even 
in  the  flesh  whose  chaste  nakedness  they  behold 
without  blushing,  of  whose  rebellion  and  criminal 
pleasures  they  are  ignorant ;  venerable  stock  and 
most  pure  offspring  which  they  beget  without 


The  Sanctity  of  Marriage.  2 1 

shame  and  pain,  and  to  whom  they  communicate 
as  a  birthright  the  integrity  and  privileges  of  their 
sanctified  nature. '  Who  can  express  the  joys  and 
glories  of  this  union  ! 

Alas !  these  joys  and  glories  have  passed  like  a 
dream.  The  union  of  our  first  parents  was  not 
long  what  God  had  made  it.  Man  by  disobe- 
dience frustrated  the  designs  of  his  Creator,  and 
gave  a  mortal  wound  to  his  nature,  the  effects  of 
which  should  be  felt  by  all  his  race.  Marriage 
did  not  cease  to  be  a  divine  thing,  and  was  long 
respected  in  the  traditions  of  humanity,  but  against 
the  sacred  recollections  transmitted  from  age  to 
age  the  passions  of  fallen  nature  plotted  a  univer- 
sal conspiracy.  They  obtained  the  mastery,  and 
the  holy  laws  of  marriage  were  soon  everywhere  de- 
spised. God,  to  punish  woman,  had  overwhelmed 
her  with  the  weight  of  this  terrible  curse :  Subviri 
potcstatc  cris,  ct  ipse  doniinabitur  tui:"1  "thou  shatt 
be  under  thy  husband's  power,  and  he  shall  have 
dominion  over  thee."  Awful  to  say,  man  has 
abused  this  divine  curse  even  to  the  most  abomi- 
nable excesses  of  injustice  and  cruelty.  Chaste  love 
and  the  oaths  of  Paradise,  he  forgot  them  all. 
Woman  was  no  longer  the  inseparable  companion 
of  his  life,  for  whom  he  should  leave  all,  the  help 
who  asked  of  him  an  undivided  heart,  bone  of  his 
bones  with  whom  he  should  make  but  one  flesh. 
He  appeared  as  a  sensual  and  implacable  despot, 

1  Cf.  Exposition  of  Catholic  Dogma,   conference  26:  Humanity  in 
Adam,  part  2. 
*  Gen.  iii.  16. 


22  The  Sanctity  of  Marriage. 

multiplying  unions,  assembling  around  him  many 
women,  repudiating,  selling,  giving,  exchanging, 
treating  as  a  slave  the  mother  of  his  children.  No 
decent  pen  would  dare  relate  all  the  dishonors  of 
the  conjugal  union  amongst  the  gentiles. 

God  had  separated  from  the  gentiles  a  peo- 
ple who  were  to  give  their  blood  to  the  Deliverer 
Whom  the  world  expected.  Guardians  of  the 
sacred  traditions  of  humanity,  they  honored  mar- 
riage more  than  other  nations,  and  yet,  because  of 
the  hardness  of  their  hearts,  which  rendered  them 
capable  of  staining  the  domestic  hearth  with 
bloody  acts  of  violence,  God  relaxed  the  ties  of 
the  primitive  institution,  and  they,  abusing  this  in- 
dulgence, took  liberties  which  the  rigorous  formal- 
ities of  the  law  were  unable  to  restrain,  and  which 
tended  to  assimilate  their  manners  with  those  of 
the  heathen. 

The  divine  institution  of  marriage  was  every- 
where assaulted,  and  threatened  to  crumble  to  the 
dust.  It  was  time  that  a  God  came  to  restore  it. 
Behold  Him  !  He  enters  the  world  by  the  ineffa- 
ble and  eternal  marriage  of  His  infinite  nature 
with  ours,  and  among  all  the  reparations  which 
He  meditates  and  undertakes,  He  does  not  forget 
that  of  conjugal  society.  During  the  early  days 
of  His  public  life  He  is  present  at  a  wedding  and 
honors  it  by  the  first  of  His  miracles ;  '  a  miracle 
figurative  of  the  wonderful  transformation  He  de- 
sires to  work  in  the  union  between  man  and  woman. 
At  His  command,  water  changes  into  wine  ;  at  His 

1  St  John  ii.  l-ll. 


TJie  Sanctity  of  Marriage.  23 

command,  natural  marriage,  already  holy,  becomes 
a  sacred  sign  among  things  divine,  becomes  a 
source  of  grace,  a  sacrament.  '  He  does  not  yet 
declare  His  design  ;  and  when  interrogated  by 
the  Pharisees  on  the  delicate  question  of  divorce, 
He  escapes  from  their  entanglements  by  leading 
them  back  to  the  primitive  institution  of  marriage. 
"  Have  ye  not  read,"  He  said,  "  that  He  Who 
made  man  from  the  beginning  made  them  male 
and  female  ?  And  He  said  :  For  this  cause  shall  a 
man  leave  father  and  mother  and  shall  cleave  to 
his  wife,  and  they  two  shall  be  in  one  flesh. 
Therefore  they  are  not  two,  but  one  flesh."  Ita- 

1  Per  hoc  ergo  Dominus  invitatus  venit  ad  nuptias,  ut  conjugalis 
castitas  servaretur  et  ostenderetur  sacramentum  nuptiarum.  —  S.  Aug., 
Tract,  ix.  in  Joan.  no.  2. 

Christus  ipse  cum  discipulis  suis  invitatus  venit  [ad  nuptias]  non 
tarn  epulaturus,  quain  ut  miraculum  faceret,  ac  prceterea  generationis 
principium  sanctifiraret,  quod  ad  carnem  nimirum  attinet.  Conve- 
niebat  enim,  ut  qui  naturam  ipsam  hominis  renovaturus  erat,  non  so- 
lum  iis,  qui  jam  in  ortum  vocati  erant,  benedictionem  impertiretur,  sed 
et  iisquoque,  quipostea  nascituriessent,  gratiamprrcstitueret,  et  eorum 
ortum  sanctum  efficeret  : 

Kti^iijftlvoy  8s  XjHff-os  x,ai  auTot;  Tmq  ot^etotq  <Twa<T'>tx,v£'iTai 
ls  QmttutToopff^ewv  ft3JJiov}  ij~£p  £ffTtttff6ft£wt£t  STL  TS 
OUTOJ  Xo 


si  yap 

Tyy  avffpancou   <l>baiv   foazf<fraJLatoufisvovt   XjOi   OJ.TJV 
ZOVTO.  Ttpus   TO   Sftsttov,   pi]   /j.«iv(iv   nnq  yjSij   Ttpos   TO    uxdp^ 
x)sz}Xrl!j.lvot.s   8tav£/j.£tv  TY^V  euhrflav,  a)J.a  x,ai  To'tq   Sffov 
»[i.tyotq  xposuTps-i*?'.';  Trtv  ydptv,  x,al   dyfav  aurwv 
ryv  sis  TO  slvm  -dfmSuv.  —  S.  Cyrillus  Alex.  Comment. 
in  Joan.,  lib.  ii.  cap.  ii.,  v.  i.  opp.  ed.  Paris,  1568,  tome  ii., 
P-  155- 


24  The  Sanctity  of  Marriage. 

que  jam  non  stint  duo  sed  una  caro.  And  He  sends 
them  away  with  this  grave  and  profound  reflec- 
tion :  "  What,  therefore,  God  hath  joined  together 
let  no  man  put  asunder."  Quod  Deus  conjunxit 
homo  non  separct. ' 

To  those  who  know  how  to  meditate  and  to 
understand,  this  saying  is  full  of  importance.  It 
is  more  than  a  protestation  against  the  disorders 
which  dishonor  marriage.  There  is  in  it  the 
promise  of  a  grace  which  shall  exalt  the  divine 
institution,  by  introducing  it  into  the  sacred  hier- 
archy of  supernatural  causes.  The  apostles,  the 
intimate  companions  of  Christ,  understood  it  thus. 
The  doctrine  of  matrimony  which  they  taught  by 
word  of  mouth  St.  Paul  has  handed  down  in  one 
of  his  immortal  epistles  for  the  instruction  of  all 
Christian  generations.  Listen  to  it,  gentlemen : 
"  Let  women  be  subject  to  their  husbands,  as  to 
the  Lord.  Because  the  husband  is  head  of  the 
wife :  as  Christ  is  the  head  of  the  Church  :  He  is 
the  saviour  of  His  body.  Therefore,  as  the 
Church  is  subject  to  Christ,  so  also  let  the  wives 
be  to  their  husbands  in  all  things.  Husbands,  love 
your  wives,  as  Christ  also  loved  the  Church,  and 
delivered  Himself  up  for  it,  that  He  might  sanctify 
it,  cleansing  it  by  the  laver  of  water  in  the  word 
of  life,  that  He  might  present  it  to  Himself  a 
glorious  Church,  not  having  spot  or  wrinkle,  or 
any  such  thing,  but  that  it  should  be  holy  and 
without  blemish.  So  also  ought  men  to  love  their 
wives  as  their  own  bodies.  He  that  loveth  his 

1  SL  Matt.  xix.  3-6. 


The  Sanctity  of  Marriage.  25 

wife,  loveth  himself.  For  no  man  ever  hated  his 
own  flesh,  but  nourisheth  and  cherisheth  it,  as  also 
Christ  doth  the  Church.  Because  we  are  mem- 
bers of  His  body,  of  His  flesh,  and  of  His  bones. 
For  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and 
mother,  and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife,  and  they  shall 
be  two  in  one  flesh.  This  is  a  great  sacrament : 
but  I  speak  in  Christ  and  in  the  Church."  ' 

Let  heresy  deal  as  subtilely  as  she  will  with 
these  words  of  St.  Paul,  she  cannot  efface  from 
history  the  interpretation  which  has  been  given 
to  them  by  the  holy  Fathers.  It  will  not  hinder 
good  sense  from  believing  in  the  transformation 
and  exaltation  of  marriage  when  it  is  seen  to  be 
compared  in  the  apostolic  teaching  to  the  myste- 
rious and  typical  union  between  Christ  and  His 
Church.  This  text  of  the  Apostle  is  full  of  inef- 
fable mystery :  mystery  in  the  union  between 
Christ  and  His  Church  ;  mystery  in  the  union  be- 
tween man  and  woman.  And  these  are  the  two 

1  Mulieres  viris  suis  subditse  shit,  sicut  Domino ;  quoniam  vir 
caput  est  mulieris,  sicut  Christus  caput  est  ecclesise  ;  ipse  salvator 
corporis  ejus.  Sed  sicut  ecclesia  subjecta  est  Christo,  ita  et  mulieres 
viris  suis  in  omnibus.  Viri,  diligite  uxores  vestras,  sicut  et  Christus 
dilexitecclesiam,  et  seipsum  tradidit  pro  ea,  ut  illam  sanctificaret,  mun- 
dans  lavacro  aquae  in  verbo  vitue,  ut  exhiberet  ipse  sibi  gloriosam  eccle- 
siam,  non  habentem  maculam,  aut  rugam,  aut  aliquid  hujusmodi,  sed 
ut  sit  sancta  et  immaculata.  Tta  et  viri  debent  diligere  uxores  suas 
ut  corpora  sua.  Qui  suam  uxorem  diligit,  seipsum  diligit.  Nemo 
enim  unquam  carnem  suam  odio  habuit ;  sed  nutrit  et  fovet  earn,  sicut  et 
Christus  ecclesiam.  Quia  membra  sumus  cor.poris  ejus,  de  carne  ejus 
et  de  ossibus  ejus.  Propter  hoc  relinquet  homo  patrem  et  matrem 
suam,  et  adhscrebit  uxori  suae  ;  et  erunt  duo  in  carne  una.  Sacramen- 
tum  hoc  magnum  est,  ego  autem  dico  in  Christo  et  in  ecclesia. — Ephes. 
v.  22-32. 


26  The  Sanctity  of  Marriage. 

unions  which  the  Apostle  calls  a  great  sacrament  : 
Sacramcntum  hoc  magnum  est.  '  The  one  would 
not  be  the  type,  nor  the  other  the  faithful  copy, 
the  symbol,  the  sign,  if  there  was  not,  in  this  as  in 
that,  a  sanctifying  virtue.  Neither  would  the  man 
love  his  wife  as  Christ  loves  the  Church,  nor  the 
wife  love  her  husband  as  the  Church  loves  Christ, 
without  a  grace  which  purifies,  ennobles,  and 
makes  love  supernatural.  Christ,  by  giving  Him- 
self to  His  Church,  sanctifies  it  ;  man  and  woman, 

1  Idipsum  per  allegoriam  in  Christo  interpretatur  et  in  Ecclesia  ;  ut 
Adam  Christum,  et  Eva  pnefiguraret  Ecclesiam.  —  Scio  quia  locus  iste 
ineffabilibus  plenus  sit  sacramentis,  et  divinum  cor  qu?erat  interpretis. 
—  S.  Hieron.  Comment,  in  Epist.  ad  Ephes.,  lib.  iii.,  cap.  v. 

Quod  si  lex  sancta  est,  sanctum  est  matrimonium.  Mysterium  ergo 
ad  Christum  et  Ecclesiam  ducit  apostolus  :  'Ariou  ds  ovToq  roD 
vuij.no  a.fwz  6  ydfios.  To  fj-uffrypiov  TOIVUV  TOUTO  efc  TOV  Xptffrdv 
xflLi  TijV  '  ExfeXyffiav  ayst  6  'AxoffToAos.  —  Clem.  Alex.,  lib.  iii. 
Strom.,  tome  i. 

Mysterii  sacramentum  grande  in  unitate  viri  ac  mulieris  esse  signifi- 
cat.  —  Int.  opp.  S.  Ambros.,  in  append,  in  Ep.  ad.  Ephfs. 

Hoc  enim  mysteiium,  inquit  divus  Paulus,  magnum  est  eo  quod 
omnis  qui  agglutinatur  uxori  ambo  unum  corpus  sunt.  "  To  ;J.O<T- 
Trjpiov  yap  TOUTO,  (/'TjfTt,  liifa.  iaTi  "  x,aOa)S  elrev  6  /jLa^dpnx; 
/7ecD^«c,  on  Tra?  (J  ytMit&fttvos  TJ?  yuvatz,}  ev  <Tf5/za  slaiv  dfK/'OTS- 
poc.  —  S.  Athanas.,  lib.  De  Virginitate,  n.  2,  tome  ii. 

Revera  mysterium  est,  et  magnum  mysterium,  relicto  eo  qui  tjenuit, 
eo  qui  aluit,  etiam  ea  quae  peperit,  quse  misere  et  cum  labore  parturi- 
vit,  adhaerere  virum  illi  quae  antea  neque  visa  sit:  atque  hanc  omni- 
bus pneferre:  "OvTwz  yap,  OVTIOS  fWffT^piov  iaTi,  x^ai 
OTC  TOV  <pi>vTa,  TOV  y£vvT]ffdii.£V()v)  TOV  dvaffps^'d 


jSi  ZjUtvov  TI  i'^ouffTfj  TT^oo?  auTov  xpofftyiMaTai,  x,at  xdvTtov 

npoTifjio.  —  S.  Chrys.,  Homil.  xx.  ///  Epist.  ad 
n.  4. 


TJtc  Sanctity  of  Marriage.  27 

in  giving  themselves  to  each  other,  ought  mutual- 
ly to  sanctify  each  other.  And  this  is  why  mar- 
riage is  a  great  sacrament :  Sacrament  inn  hoc  mag- 
num cst. 

Besides,  gentlemen,  if  even  in  this  place  the  au- 
thority of  the  Apostle  should  be  disputed,  it  must 
be  admitted  in  the  universal  and  constant  tradition 
of  the  Church,  which  is  and  only  can  be  an  echoof 
apostolic  doctrine.  Now,  according  to  the  lan- 
guage of  tradition,  "  marriage  is  a  union  sealed 
with  the  blessing  of  God."  ' 

It  is  not  sufficient  that  the  persons  jointly  con- 
sent and  give  themselves  to  each  other ;  the  author 
of  grace  must  intervene.  By  virtue  of  His  inter- 
vention the  union  is  both  sanctifying  and  sancti- 
fied.2 Divine  grace  penetrates  and  strengthens  it 
by  tightening  the  bonds. 3 

1  Quod  (matrimonium)  Ecclesia  conciliat,  et  confirmat  oblatio,  et 
obsignat  benedictio.— Tertul.,  lib.  ii.,  Ad  Uxorem,  cap.  viii. 

Nam  quod  in  ipsa  conjunctione  connubii  a  sacerdote  benedicatur, 
hoc  est  a  Deo  primo  in  ipsa  conjunctione  hominis  factum  est.— S.  Isidor 
Hispal..  De  origin*  Efdes.,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  xix. 

*  Neque  vero  nos  negamus  sanctificatum  a  Christo  esse  conjugium. 
— S.  Ambros.,  Epist.  ad  Siricttm  Papatn,  n.  5. 

Bonum  nupttarum  per  omnes  gentes,  atque  omnes  homines  in  causa 
generandi  est  in  fide  castitatis ;  quod  autem  ad  populum  Dei  pertinet, 
etiam  in  sanctitate  sacratnenti. — S.  Aug.,  De  bono  conjugal',  cap.  xxiv., 

n.  32- 

3  Si  ergo  ratum  est  apud  Deum  matrimonium  hujusmodi,  cur  non  et 
prospere  cedat,  ut  pressuris,  et  angustiis,  et  impedimentis,  et  inquina- 
mentis  non  ita  lacessatur,  habens  jam  ex  parte  divinae  gratice  patroci- 
nium.— Tertul.  lib.,  Ad  Uxor.,  cap.  vii. 

Cognoscimus  veluti  prsesulem  custodemque  conjugii  esse  Deum,  qui 
non  patitur  alterum  thorum  pollui ;  et  si  qui  fecerit  peccare  eum  in 
Deum,  cujus  legem  violat  gratiam  solvat ;  et  ideo  quia  in  Deum 


28  The  Sanctity  of  Marriage. 

It  is  a  sacrament;1 — and  in  Christian  marriages 
the  sanctity  of  the  sacrament  is  more  important 
than  the  fecundity  of  the  womb:  In  cliristianis 
nnptiis  plus  valet  sanctitas  sacramenti  quant  foecundi- 
tas  uteri. " 

A  sacrament !  We  see  this  word  written  in  all 
the  councils,  the  liturgies,  and  in  all  sacramentaries. 
Eastern  heresies  and  the  great  Greek  schism  did 
not  efface  it.  It  resounds  in  all  the  theological 
schools  of  the  middle  ages ;  we  scarcely  find  in  the 
crowd  of  the  masters  of  sacred  science  an  original 
scholastic  who  is  doubtful  about  its  meaning. 3 
After  this,  gentlemen,  let  Luther  deny  the  trans- 
formation worked  by  Christ  in  marriage ;  let  Calvin 
assert  that  to  marry,  to  labor,  to  make  shoes,  are 
things  no  more  sacred  one  than  the  other;  let 
legislators  endeavor  to  reduce  marriage  to  the 
condition  of  a  purely  profane  contract ;  it  is  indeed 
high  time  after  fifteen  centuries  of  a  teaching 
which  has  never  varied  and  which  refers  to  Christ 
Himself  the  sanctification  of  Christian  marriage. 
The  Council  of  Trent  was  right  when  it  said: 

peccat,  sacramenti  coelestis  amittit  consortium. — S.  Ambros.,  lib.  i., 
De  Abraham,  cap.  vii.,  n.  59 

1  In  nuptiis  bona  nuptialia  diligantur  proles,  fides,  sacramentum. — 
S.  Aug.,  lib.  i.,  DC  myst.  et  concitpisc.,  cap.  xvi.  n.  19. 

Hujus  procul  dubio  sacramenti  res  est  ut  mas  et  fcemina  connubio 
copulati,  quamdiu  vivunt,  inseparabiliter  perseverent. — S.  Aug.,  lib.  i., 
De  nuptiis,  cap.  x.,  n.  2. 

2  S.  Aug.,  De  bono  conjngali,  cap.  xviii.,  n.  21. 

3  Council  of  Verona,  1181;  II.  Council  of  Lyons,  13^4;  Sacramen- 
tarians  of  St.  Leon.,  461 ;  of  St.  Gelasius,  496;  of  St.  Gregory  the  Great; 
Greek    Sacramentarians ;    Liturgies   of  the   Nestorians,   Copts,    Jac- 
obites, Armenians. — (Cf.  Perrone,  Detnatrimonw  christiano,  tome  i., 
cap.  i..  §  i.,  art.  i.) 


The  Sanctity  of  Marriage.  29 

"  If  any  one  says  that  marriage  is  not  truly  and 
properly  one  of  the  seven  sacraments  of  the 
Gospel  Law,  instituted  by  Christ  Our  Lord,  but 
that  it  has  been  invented  in  the  Church  by  men, 
and  that  it  does  not  confer  grace,  let  him  be  ana- 
thema." ' 

Observe,  the  council  does  not  say  there  is  a  sac- 
rament in  marriage,  but  that  marriage  itself  is  a 
sacrament.  These  words  are  of  sovereign  impor- 
tance. They  protect  the  conjugal  union  against 
the  usurpations  of  which  we  shall  have  to  speak, 
and  teach  us  that  we  ma)'  not  separate  these  two 
things :  the  human  act  by  which  man  and  woman 
give  themselves  to  each  other,  and  the  divine  act 
by  which  grace  is  conferred.  Like  the  religious  and 
sacred  character  given  to  the  conjugal  tie  by  the 
mysterious  power  whose  intervention  in  the  natural 
marriage  we  have  already  stated,  so  also  the  sac- 
rament arises  from  the  contract.  I  say  more  :  it  is 
the  contract  itself,  the  contract  invested  by  God 
with  the  power  to  produce  grace  in  the  same  way 
as  all  outward  signs  which  He,  their  supernatural 
author,  has  made  the  instruments  of  His  almighty 
power.  We  cannot,  then,  say  :  here  is  the  marriage, 
there  the  sacrament ;  the  marriage  contracted  by 
the  exchange  of  consent,  the  sacrament  poured 
out  like  a  beneficent  oil  on  the  contracted  union. 
No.  It  is  in  the  very  exchange  of  consent  that 

1  Si  quis  dixerit  niatrimonium  non  esse  vere  et  proprie  unum  ex 
septem  legis  Evangelic*  sacramentum  a  Christo  Domino  institutum, 
sed  ah  hominibus  in  Ecclesia  inventum  ;  neque  gratiam  conferre, 
anathema  sit. — Sess.  24,  De  Matrimonio,  can.  I. 


30  The  Sanctity  of  Marriage. 

the  sacramental  elements  are  found,  from  which 
there  results  not  only  a  purely  natural  tie,  as  in 
primitive  marriage,  but  also  a  supernatural  tie,  im- 
pregnated and  penetrated  with  the  grace  of  God. 

Understand  clearly  this  mystery,  husbands  who 
become  by  your  union  the  stock  of  the  Christian 
family,  and  recognize  your  .dignity.  You  have 
received  in  baptism  a  participation  in  the  priesthood 
of  Jesus  Christ,  a  character  has  been  imprinted  on 
your  souls,  sinking  deeply  into  them  as  one  makes 
deeper  the  canals  through  which  shall  pass  the 
waters  of  a  great  river.  This  character  gave  you 
a  right  to  the  bounty  and  benefits  of  the  divine  life, 
and  I  have  said  it  was  a  passive  power,  by  which 
your  regenerated  souls  became  apt  to  receive 
sacred  things.  I  ought  to  add  to-day  that  for  one 
circumstance  in  the  Christian  life  there  is  in  the 
baptismal  character  an  active  power  which  makes 
you  resemble  more  closely  the  priesthood  of  Christ : 
it  is  the  power  of  giving  at  the  same  time  that  you 
receive  it  the  sacred  thing  which  transforms  mar- 
riage and  makes  it  more  holy  than  God  made  it 
at  the  beginning  of  the  world. 

When,  standing  in  front  of  the  altar  and  under 
the  eyes  of  the  Church,  the  young  persons  about 
to  be  united  give  their  hands  to  each  other,  they 
are  priests,  priests  like  the  sublime  man  whose 
greatness  we  lately  celebrated,  for,  like  him,  they 
make  and  give  a  sacred  thing.  They  say  :  Will 
you  take  me,  I  give  myself. — It  is  the  matter  of 
the  sacrament.  They  answer :  I  receive  you  for 
mine. — It  is  the  form  of  the  sacrament.  And 


The  Sanctity  of  Marriage.  3 1 

when  the  donation  and  acceptation  are  joined  on 
both  sides,  the  supernatural  tie  is  made,  grace 
bursts  forth,  the  sacrament  is  perfected. 

This  sacrament  does  not  pass  away,  says  a 
learned  theologian;  it  remains  like  the  ineffable 
mystery  which  we  adore  on  our  altars  and  in  our 
tabernacles.  Just  as  the  eucharistic  species  remain 
after  the  act  which  consecrates  them,  as  the  symbol 
of  the  spiritual  food  which  they  contain,  so  like- 
wise the  ordinary  life  of  Christian  husbands  and 
wives,  the  outward  manifestation  of  the  tie  which 
binds  them,  remains  as  the  symbol  of  the  indissolu- 
ble union  between  Christ  and  His  Church,  which 
it  imitates. '  This  is  why  St.  Paul  calls  marriage  a 
great  sacrament:  Sacrajncntmn  hoc  magnum  cst. 

Further,  gentlemen,  this  sacrament  continues  in 
the  conjugal  tie  with  all  the  virtuality  which  the 
exchange  of  oaths  has  given  to  it.  It  is  not  only 
before  the  altar  that  it  produces  grace,  it  retains 
the  power  of  producing  it  in  all  circumstances  and 
whenever  the  ordinary  life  of  Christian  husbands 
and  wives  requires  it.  And  what  grace  !  The 
holy  Council  of  Trent  has  described  it  in  a  few 
words  which  leave  nothing  unsaid :  "  It  is  a  grace 

1  Est  matrimonium  simile  Eucharistice,  quae  non  solum  dum  fit,  sed 
etiam  dum  permanet,  sacramentum  est.  Dum  enim  conjuges  vivunt, 
semper  eorum  societas  sacramentum  est  Christ!  et  Ecclesise.  .  .  . 
Nam  negari  non  potest  ipsos  conjuges,  simul  cohahitantes,  sive  exter- 
nam  conjugum  societatem  et  conjunctionem,  esse  materiale  symbolum 
externum  Christi  et  Ecclesioe  indissolubilem  conjunctionem  referens, 
quemadmodum  in  sacramento  Eucharistire,  consecratione  peracta,  rema- 
nent  species  consecratze,  quae  sunt  symbolum  sensibile  atque  exter- 
num interni  alimenti  spiritualis.—  Bellarmin,  De  Jfatrimonio,  cap.  vi. 


32  The  Sanctity  of  Marriage. 

which  perfects  natural  love,  strengthens  the  union 
into  an  absolute  indissolubility,  and  sanctities  the 
persons  married. ' 

Natural  love  allows  itself  to  be  captivated  by 
those  fragile  charms  which  the  cruel  hand  of  time 
never  spares.  Every  day  this  pitiless  ravager  of 
human  beauty  does  its  work.  It  fades  the  radiant 
color  of  youth,  deforms  the  features,  wrinkles  the 
forehead,  sprinkles  the  hair  with  its  frost,  bends 
the  body,  destroys,  one  after  another,  the  attrac- 
tions which  speak  to  the  eye,  and  at  last  there  only 
remains  before  one  a  disfigured  idol,  which  causes 
the  foolishly  captivated  heart  only  regret  of  its 
fond  adoration. 

Natural  love,  however  well  founded  on  respect 
and  esteem,  does  not  always  withstand  the  sudden 
revelations  which  place  under  our  eyes  the  imper- 
fections, faults,  and  vices  of  which  we  had  not 
dreamt.  Our  shaken  security,  our  menaced  peace, 
discourage  the  poor  heart,  which  believed  itself  so 
steadfast,  and  invite  it  to  cease  loving.  Natural 
love,  in  a  fallen  creature,  but  little  master  of  his 
passions,  wearies  of  being  attached  to  the  same 
object.  Inconstancy  and  caprice  turn  him,  alas! 
too  easily  towards  another,  by  whose  side  he  for- 
gets both  his  duty  and  his  vows.  Lamentable 
weakness,  from  which  marriage  has  suffered  in  all 
ages ! 

1  Gratiam  vero,  qure  naturalem  ilium  amorem  perficeret  et  indisso- 
lubilem  unitatem  confirmaret,  conjugesque  sanctificaret,  ipse  Christus, 
venerabilium  sacramentorum  iustitutoratque  perfector,  sua  nobis  passi- 
one  promeruit. — Sess.  24,  De  Matritnoiiio. 


The  Sanctity  of  Marriage.  33 

But  since  it  has  been  sanctified  by  Christ,  grace 
perfects  love.  It  renders  it  wise.  It  teaches  it 
that  nothing  is  perfect  here  below ;  that  the  infinite 
beauty  of  God  is  the  only  ideal  capable  of  satisfying 
a  heart  eager  for  perfection  ;  that  when  men  have 
not  all  that  they  would  wish,  they  must  love  what 
they  have.  It  purifies  the  natural  eye,  renders  un- 
comeliness  bearable,  infirmity  touching,  and  old 
age  and  white  hairs  lovable. 

Grace  makes  love  patient.  It  strengthens  it 
against  the  shock  of  known  faults  and  against  the 
too  sudden  revelation  of  those  faults  which  have 
escaped  its  observation.  Grace  makes  love  just 
and  merciful.  It  persuades  it  easily  that,  if  we 
have  to  suffer,  we  make  ourselves  suffer,  and  that 
in  married  life  more  than  elsewhere  the  evangelic- 
al maxim  must  be  put  into  practice  :  "  Bear  ye  one 
another's  burdens."  Instead  of  reproaches,  it  sug- 
gests excuses.  It  changes  recrimination  into  good 
counsel,  wise  exhortation,  gentle  encouragement, 
amiable  correction  ;  it  inclines  the  hearts,  which  it 
softens, to  pardon  easily.  Finally,  grace  makes  love 
faithful  in  duty  ;  it  makes  it  see  in  a  bright  dav- 
light,  which  the  clouds  of  fancy,  caprice,  misconcep- 
tion, and  falsehood  cannot  darken,  and  makes  it 
find  in  constancy  an  honor  and  joy  for  which  it 
thanks  God,  He  Who  is  so  faithful  even  to  those 
who  injure  Him. 

True,  gentlemen,  this  perfection  of  natural  love 
by  grace  is  already  a  strong  guarantee  of  solidity 
for  the  conjugal  tie,  but  the  sacramental  act  con- 
tributes more  to  its  support.  It  lays  hold  of  it, 


34  The  Sanctity  of  Marriage. 

transforms  it,  and  so  tightens  the  cords  that  they 
can  be  neither  stretched  nor  broken.  By  render- 
ing it  more  sacred  through  the  permeation  of  His 
infinite  virtue,  God  pledges  Himself  to  show  no 
more  that  indulgence  for  human  weakness  which 
obtained  from  Him  formerly  those  permissions  and 
dispensations  which  our  perverse  nature  has  so 
greatly  abused. 

Such  is  marriage.  Twice  honored  by  the  inter- 
vention of  God,  at  the  solemn  epochs  of  the  crea- 
tion and  the  redemption,  it  demands  our  respect, 
and  I  have  the  right  to  say  to  men :  Touch  it 
not,  it  is  a  holy  thing.  Yes,  it  is  a  holy  thing.  You 
must  be  deeply  imbued  with  this  truth,  if  you 
wish  to  agree  with  me  in  the  conclusion  which  1 
shall  draw  from  it.  This  conclusion  can  only  con- 
firm the  words  of  St.  Paul :  This  is  a  great  sacra- 
ment :  Sacramentum  hoc  magnum  est. 


CONFERENCE  II. 

i*. 


MY  LORD'  AND  GENTLEMEN:  —  While  it  is  re- 
quired for  a  perfect  marriage  that  the  man  and  the 
woman  inwardly  consent  to  give  themselves  to  each 
other,  and  that  their  consent  be  expressed  by  a 
verbal  contract,  yet  the  essence  of  marriage  is  not 
in  the  consent  so  expressed.  Nor  is  it  in  the  mu- 
tual giving  and  receiving  of  their  persons.  It  is  in 
the  bond  and  the  obligation  which  theologians  call 
conjunctio^  and  the  Roman  Catechism,  the  conjugal 
tie.  That  catechism  is  wholly  impregnated  with 
the  spirit  and  doctrine  of  the  holy  Council  of  Trent, 
and  from  it  I  borrow  the  central  idea  from  which 
proceed  and  around  which  gravitate  the  truths 
which  I  am  about  to  explain. 

The  conjugal  tie,  made  and  knotted  by  the  con- 
currence of  two  powers,  the  human  will  and  the 
divine  will,  is  the  very  essence  of  marriage.  This 
tie,  sacred  in  itself  and  made  more  sacred  by  the 
institution  of  the  Sacrament  of  Matrimony,  is  a  tie 
which  cannot  be  divided,  a  bond  that  cannot  be 
broken.  It  is  one  and  indissoluble.  These  are 
the  qualities  of  marriage  which  we  must  study. 

There   is   no   need,  gentlemen,  of  asking  your 


1  Monseigneur  Richard,  Archbishop  of  Paris. 
'*  See  Latin  text  in  notes  of  preceding  conference. 

35 


36  The  Conjugal  Tie. 

closest  attention  to  this  subject.  You  know  well 
its  importance  at  the  present  time,  and  you  will,  I 
hope,  scrupulously  attend  to  the  development  of 
these  two  propositions: — First,  The  indissoluble 
unity  of  the  conjugal  tie  is  a  divine  law.  Second, 
That  law  is  a  law  of  progress  and  perfection  in 
nature. 


God,  Who  is  the  principle  of  life,  has  diffused 
that  principle  throughout  the  world  with  bound- 
less liberality,  but  He  has  not  left  it  to  itself.  He 
has  regulated  the  evolutions  and  determined  the 
conditions  of  these  prolific  unions  by  which  life  is 
propagated.  In  this  God  is  the  absolute  Master, 
and  His  will  is  the  law  of  the  beings  whom  He  as- 
sociates in  His  continued  act  of  creation;  but, 
gentlemen,  when  God  had  separated  from  every 
living  thing  the  two  privileged  beings  to  whom 
He  gave  the  empire  of  the  world,  and  who  were  to 
be  the  stock  of  a  race  marked. with  the  seal  of  the 
likeness  of  God,  He  willed  that  they  should  be  in- 
dissolubly  united  to  each  other.  If  He  did  not 
express  His  will  in  words,  as  He  did  with  regard 
to  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  He 
spoke  secretly  of  His  design  to  the  heart  of  the 
first  man,  and  it  was  by  a  divine  instinct,  says  the 
Church,  that  the  father  of  humanity  pronounced 
those  celebrated  words  which  I  have  lately  quoted 
to  you  :  "  This  is  bone  of  my  bones,  and  flesh  of  my 
flesh ;  she  shall  be  called  Woman,  because  she  was 
taken  out  of  man.  Wherefore  a  man  shall  leave 


The  Conjugal  Tie.  37 

father  and  mother,  and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife  ; 
and  they  shall  be  two  in  one  flesh." 

You  hear,  gentlemen,  two,  and  no  more.  And 
these  two  shall  cleave  to  each  other  as  the  flesh 
and  bone  of  Adam,  from  which  the  woman  is 
formed,  cleaved  to  his  body  :  Quamobrem  ad- 
hcercbit  homo  uxori  suce.  "  Such  is  the  will  of  God," 
says  Tertullian,  "  manifested  in  this  typical  mar- 
riage, the  form  of  which  should  be  imitated  by  all 
men."2  The  law  is  not  yet  express  and  imperative, 
as  it  will  become,  but  the  generations  which  have 
issued  from  our  first  parents  recognize  its  implicit 
authority,  and  for  a  long  time  the  indissoluble  unity 
of  the  conjugal  tie  is  the  rule  of  those  who  found 
families  and  multiply  the  human  race. 

Lamech,  the  first  who  violates  it  to  satisfy  his 
passion,  is  a  man  of  blood  and  malediction.  3  It 
is  true  that  after  the  Deluge  polygamy  was  es- 
tablished, and  the  law-giver  of  the  Jewish  people 
permitted,  in  certain  cases,  the  rupture  of  the 
conjugal  tie.  God  tolerated  these  practices,  but 
the  primitive  institution  of  marriage  still  existed, 
awaiting  better  days.  But  during  this  expec- 

1  Matrimonii  perpetuum  indissolubilemque  nexum  primus  human! 
generis  parens  divini  Spiritus  instinctu  pronuntiavit  cum  dixit :  Hoc 
mine  os,  etc. — Cone.  Trid.,  sess.  24,  Dortrina  de  Sacramento  Matri- 
monii. 

2  Et  ideo  homo  Dei  Adam  et  mulier  Dei  Eva,  unis  in  terse  nuptiis 
juncti  formam  hominibus  Dei,  de  originis  auctoritate,  et  prima  Dei 
voluntate  sanxerunt. — De  exhort,  cast.,  cap.  5. 

3  Xumerus   matrimonii  a  maledicto  viro  coepit.     Primus   Lamech 
duabus  marital  us,  tres  in  tinam  carnem  effecit — Tertul.,  loc.  cit. 

Primus  Lamech,  sanguinarius  et  homicida,  unnm  carnem  in  duas  di- 
visit  uxores. — S.  Ilieron.  lib.  Advers.  Joviniannm. 


38  The  Conjugal  Tie. 

tation,  God,  the  author  of  nature  and  the  law- 
giver of  human  life,  has  entire  power  to  relax 
the  obligations  of  a  law  to  which  He  has  not 
yet  given  its  definite  form.  He  knows  better 
than  any  one  else  why  He  tolerates  acts  which  His 
positive  law  and  the  first  principles  of  natural  law 
manifestly  forbid.  God  may  have  permitted  po- 
lygamy in  order  to  hasten  the  multiplication  of 
families  and  nations.  He  may  have  wished  to  re- 
establish a  numerical  equilibrium  of  the  sexes,  and 
spare  His  people  the  domestic  crimes  to  which  the 
impetuosity  of  their  passions  and  their  hardness  of 
heart  exposed  them.  It  may  have  been  His  wish 
to  allow  the  human  family  to  experience  the  dis- 
orders of  unbridled  lust.  We  know  not  why  He 
tolerated  polygamy,  but  we  do  know  that  His 
tolerance  does  not  excuse  the  license  which  pas- 
sion takes  against  the  wish  of  legitimate  husband 
and  wife,  and  for  evil  ends.  It  is  only  the  arro- 
gance which  belongs  to  heresy  that  can  accuse 
those  of  crime  whom  He  has  not  condemned.  The 
tolerance  of  God  towards  the  generations  of  anti- 
quity does  not  make  Him  forget  His  first  design  in 
the  institution  of  marriage,  and  we  may  say  of 
the  indissoluble  unity  of  the  conjugal  tie  what  St. 
Paul  said  of  God  Himself:  Non  sine  tcstimonio 
scinetipsum  reliquit,  "  God  left  not  Himself  with- 
out testimony."  '  Just  as  in  the  midst  of  the  dark- 
ness of  idolatry  the  existence  of  the  true  God 
is  attested  by  proofs  so  evident  that  the  reason 
which  does  not  submit  to  them  is  without  excuse, 

1  Acts  xiv.  16. 


The  Conjugal  Tie.  39 

so  also  in  the  universal  decay  of  marriage  its  unity 
and  indissolubility  are  affirmed  and  declared  by 
facts  and  by  teaching  which  link  the  Christian 
restoration  to  the  primitive  institution.  It  is  easy 
to  guess  from  the  language  of  Scripture  to  which 
side  the  law  of  nature  and  preference  of  God  in- 
cline. The  historical,  lyrical,  and  prophetic  books 
are  full  of  precious  indications  in  this  respect.  "  We 
are  the  children  of  saints,"  says  young  Tobias  to 
her  whom  he  marries ;  "  we  must  not  be  joined  to- 
gether like  heathens  that  know  not  God.  .  .  .  Thou 
madest  Adam  of  the  slime  of  the  earth,  and  gavest 
him  Eve  for  a  helper. . .  .  And  now,  Lord,  Thou 
knowest  that  not  for  fleshly  lust  do  I  take  my  sis- 
ter to  wife,  but  only  for  the  love  of  posterity,  in 
which  Thy  name  may  be  blessed  forever  and  ever." 
And  Sara  completes  this  touching  prayer :  "  Have 
mercy  on  us,  O  Lord,  have  mercy  on  us,  and  let 
us  grow  old  both  together  in  health." '  She  is 
the  only  woman  and  faithful  spouse  that  Wisdom 
praises. 

The  Canticle  of  Canticles  celebrates  the  mystical 
marriage  which  shall  become  the  type  of  Christian 
marriage.  Moses  permitted  the  bill  of  divorce,  but 
this  act  is  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  legal  precau- 
tions which  can  only  be  considered  as  so  many 

1  Filii  sanctorum  sumus,  et  non  possumus  ita  conjangi,  sicut  gentes 

quce  ignorant  Deum Domine  Deus  patrum   nostrorum,  tu  fe- 

cisti  Adam  de  limo  terne,  dedistique  ei  adjutorium  Hevam.  Et  nunc, 
Domine,  tu  scU  quia  non  luxurice  causa  accipio  sororem  meam  conju- 
gem,  sed  sola  posteritatis  dilectione,  in  qua  benedicatur  nomen  tuum 
in  sxcula  sreculorum.  Dixit  quoque  Sara :  Miserere  nobis,  Domine, 
miserere  nobis,  et  consenescamus  ambo  pariter  sani. — Tob  viii.  5-10. 


4O  The  Conjugal  Tie. 

protestations  of  the  desire  of  God  in  opposition  to 
its  indulgence.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  those 
who  profit  by  this  indulgence,  during  the  long  pe- 
riod of  time  which  elapses  between  the  exodus  and 
the  captivity,  are  so  few,  and  conceal  themselves 
so  well,  that  sacred  history  does  not  mention  them. 
Among  the  nations  where  the  word  of  God  is  nev- 
er heard,  some  persistently  marry  but  once ;  and 
barbarians  even  deserve  this  praise  from  a  great 
historian :  "  Their  virgins  only  marry  one  man,  to 
make  with  him  one  body  and  one  life.  Their 
thought  and  desire  do  not  reach  beyond  this,  be- 
cause it  is  their  marriage  that  they  love  rather  than 
a  husband."1  An  old  Indian  legislator  writes: 

"  Man   and   woman  make   but  one  person 

Woman  is  the  companion  of  man  in  life,  in  death."5 
—In  short,  at  the  time  when  the  kingly  nation  dis- 
honored itself  by  the  capricious  and  infamous  di- 
vorces which  demoralized  Roman  society,  it  did 
not  expunge  from  its  law  this  beautiful  definition 
of  marriage:  Divini  humanique juris  communicatio, 
consortium  ornnis  vita,  individuamvita  consuetudincni 
rctincns?  "A  common  participation  in  the  same 
law,divine  and  human;  union  for  life  in  the  same 
fate;  the  condition  and  habits  of  two -lives  which 
henceforth  make  but  one." 

In  spite  of  these  protestations,  Roman  relaxation 

1  Virgines  accipiunt  unum  maritum,  quomodo  unum  corpus,  unam- 
que  vitam,  nee  ulla  cogitatio  ultra,  nee  longior  cupiditas,  ne  tanquam 
maritum  sed  tanquam  matrimonium  ament.-  Tacit.,  De  moribus  Ger- 
manontin,  n.  19. 

8  Law  of  Manou.  '    Digest.,  xxiii. 


The  Conjugal  Tic.  41 

triumphed,  even  to  corruption.  It  would  have 
triumphed  in  the  long  run  over  the  indissoluble 
unity  of  the  conjugal  tie,  if  God,  wearied  with  toler- 
ance, had  not  solemnly  restored  that  unity.  He 
speaks  no  longer  by  the  mouth  of  inspired  men, 
but  by  the  mouth  of  His  Son.  You  have  seen, 
gentlemen,  this  divine  Bridegroom  of  our  nature ; 
you  have  heard  Him  when  He  enacted  the  institu- 
tion of  the  sacrament.  Hear  Him  again ;  for  to- 
day it  is  His  word  that  makes  the  law. 

"  And  there  came  to  Him  the  Pharisees  tempting 
Him.  and  saying :  Is  it  lawful  for  a  man  to  put 
away  his  wife  for  every  cause  ?  Who  answering, 
said  to  them :  Have  ye  not  read,  that  He  Who 
made  man  from  the  beginning,  made  them  male 
and  female  ?  And  He  said  :  For  this  cause  shall 
a  man  leave  father  and  mother,  and  shall  cleave  to 
his  wife,  and  they  two  shall  be  in  one  flesh  ;  there- 
fore now  they  are  not  two,  but  one  flesh.  What 
therefore  God  hath  joined  together,  let  no  man  put 
asunder.  They  sav  to  Him  :  Why,  then,  did  Moses 
command  to  give  a  bill  of  divorce,  and  to  put 
away  ?  He  said  to  them  :  Because  Moses,  by 
reason  of  the  hardness  of  your  heart,  permitted 
you  to  put-  away  your  wives  :  but  from  the  begin- 
ning it  was  not  so.  And  I  say  to  you,  that  who- 
soever shall  put  away  his  wife,  except  it  be  for  for- 
nication, and  shall  marry  another,  committeth  adul- 
tery :  and  he  that  shall  marry  her  that  is  put  away, 
committeth  adultery.  His  disciples  say  unto  Him : 
If  the  case  of  a  man  with  his  wife  be  so,  it  is  not 
expedient  to  marry.  Who  said  to  them  :  All  men 


42  The  Conjugiil  Tie. 

take  not  this  word,  but  they  to  whom  it  is  given." ' 
It  is  impossible,  gentlemen,  to  teach  more  clearly 
that  God,  in  the  primitive  institution  of  marriage, 
had  in  view  the  indissoluble  unity  of  the  conjugal 
tie ;  that  this  indissoluble  unity  is  expressly  de- 
sired and  commanded  by  the  New  Law ;  that  it 
permits  no  more  exceptions  ;  that  tolerance  is  at 
an  end ;  that  dispensations  are  abolished  forever. 
Those  crimes  even  which  may  justify  a  sepa- 
ration do  not  break  the  tie  which  binds  two  lives 
to  each  other  when  they  are  married  ;  the  wile 
sent  away  from  the  conjugal  roof  on  account  of 
her  unfaithfulness  can  only  be  replaced  by  adul- 
tery. This  is  hard  for  carnal  man,  but  it  is  the 
law  of  the  new  world  created  by  the  Redeemer. 

Such  is  the  law.  St.  Paul  promulgates  it  in  the 
churches  of  Rome  and  of  Corinth  for  the  whole 
universe  :  "  Know  you  not,  brethren  (for  I  speak  to 
them  that  know  the  law),  that  the  law  hath  domin- 
ion over  a  man,  as  long  as  it  liveth  ?  For  the  woman 
that  hath  a  husband,  whilst  her  husband  liveth,  is 
bound  to  the  law  :  but  if  her  husband  be  dead, 
she  is  loosed  from  the  law  of  her  husband.  There- 
fore, whilst  her  husband  liveth,  she  shall  be  called 
an  adulteress  if  she  be  with  another  man  :  but  if 
her  husband  be  dead,  she  is  delivered  from  the  law 
of  her  husband  :  so  that  she  is  not  an  adulteress  if 
she  be  with  another  man."  "  "  But  to  them  that  are 

1  St.  Matt.  xix.  3-1 1. 

*  An  ignoratis,  fratres  (scientibus  enim  legem  loquor),  quia  lex  in 
homine  dominatur,  quanto  tempore  vivit  ?  Nam  quse  sub  viro  est 
mulier,  vivente  viro,  alligata  est  legi ;  si  autem  mortuus  fuerit  vir  ejus, 
goluta  est  a  lege  viri.  Igitur,  vivente  viro,  vocabitur  adultera  si  fuerit 


The  Conjugal  Tie.  43 

married,  not  I,  but  the  Lord  commandeth,  that  the 
wife  depart  not  from  her  husband :  and  if  she  de- 
part, that  she  remain  unmarried,  or  be  reconciled 
to  her  husband.  And  let  not  the  husband  put 
away  his  wife." '  In  a  word,  the  divine  and  invio- 
lable law  for  husband  and  wife  is  to  be  bound  by 
a  tie  which  death  alone  can  break. 

It  is  the  law.  In  the  name  of  the  indissoluble 
unity  of  the  conjugal  tie  re-established  by  Christ, 
the  successors  of  the  apostles,  the  Fathers  and  the 
doctors  of  the  Church,  drive  back  before  them  the 
last  resistance  of  Judaism  and  paganism,  as  well  as 
the  edicts  and  licenses  of  the  princes  of  the  earth. 
Monogamy,  they  say,  has  entered  into  Christian 
customs.*  No  more  polygamy,  Christ  has  abol- 
ished it. 3  One  wife  or  none  at  all  is  the  motto  of 
the  Christian. 4  As  long  as  a  man  lives,  no  matter 
what  may  be  his  crimes,  he  remains  the  husband 

cum  alio  viro;  si  autem  mortuus  fuerit  vir  ejus,  liber.ita  est  a  lege  viri, 
ut  non  sit  adultera  si  fuerit  cum  alio  viro.  —  Rom.  vii.  1-3. 

1  Us  autem,  qui  matrimonio  juncti  sunt  prtecipio,  non  ego,  sed  Do- 
minus,  uxorem  a  viro  non  discedere;  quod  si  discesserit,  manere  innu- 
ptam,  aut  viro  suo  reconciliari,  et  vir  uxorem  non  dimittat. — I.  Cor.  vii. 

10-11. 

*  (ApudChristianos)  temperantiaadest,  continentia  exercetur,  mono- 
gamia  servatur,  custoditur  castitas  Hap  u\-  ffanf<poau<sq  xapeffrtv, 
lyxpdrsia  dffx.s~tra'.,  povoyoftfa  r^psl-at,  dj^sta  tyuXdaazTnt. — 
Theophil.  Antiochen.,  ad  Antolycum,  lib.  iii.  n.  25. 

3  Idem  vir  et  Dominus  (Christus)  non  amplius  concedit  polygamiam: 
A)J.'  u  avrus;   avijp    x,ai    zppiot  nu    xoluyafitav    ert   ffUf%wpst. 

— Clemens.  Alex.,  Strom.,  lib.  iii.,  p.  461. 

4  Unius  matrimonii  vinculo  libenter  inhreremus.     Cupiditatem  pro- 
creandi,  aut  unam  scimas,  aut  nullam. — Minucius  Felix,  in   Octavio, 
n.  31. 


44  The  Conjugal  Tie. 

of  the  wife  whom  he  has  married.  '  The  sacra- 
ment thus  ordains  it. a  Do  not  speak  to  us  of  the 
laws  of  divorce  enacted  by  secular  powers.  Not 
these,  but  the  laws  which  God  has  made  shall 
judge  us.3  The  laws  of  Caesar  are  one  thing,  the 
laws  of  Christ  are  another ;  what  is  permitted  by 
Papinian  is  one  thing,  what  is  forbidden  by  the  great 
St.  Paul  is  another  thing. 4  Hear  the  law  of  God 
to  which  even  those  are  subject  who  make  laws : 
Qnce  Deus  conjunxit  homo  nan  separet. 5 

It  is  the  law.  The  Roman  Pontiffs  with  sover- 
eign authority  recall  it  to  the  memories  of  those 
two  daring  kings  and  people  who  try  to  escape 
it.  It  is  the  law.  All  the  schools  of  theology  pro- 
claim and  comment  on  it.  In  spite  of  the  resistance 
of  nature  and  of  human  power  it  is  established 

1  Quamdiu  vivit  vir,  licet  adulter  sit,  licet  sodomila,  licet  flagitiis 
omnibus  coopertus,  et  ab  uxore  propter  hoec  scelera  derelictus,  mari- 
tus  ejus  reputatur,  cui  alterum  virum  accipere  non  licet. — S.  Hieron. 
Epist.  ad  Amandum. 

2  Haud  procul  dubio  sacrament!  res  est,  ut  mas  et  femina  connubio 
copulali,  quamdiu  vivunt,  inseparabiliter  perseverent. — S.  Aug.  lib.  !.» 
De  Nuptiis,  cap.  x. 

3  Ne  mihi  leges  ab  exteris  conditas  legas,  prsecipientes  dai  i  libellum 
repudii,  et  divelli.     Neque  enim  juxta  illas  judicaturus  est  te  Deus  in 
die  ilia,   sed  secundum  eas  quse  ipse  statuit:      MTJ  yap   /j.ot  robs 
rcapd  T»?7  k'^caOsv   -/.^'.jj-ivooq  voftouq  dvayvats,  THUS  xs/ewj/ra? 
fSutoyat    BtSAtov  drroffrafftou,  xai   dpitrraGOat.      Ob  yap  8rj  xard 
Tourouq  sot  iilXXsi  xpivsw  TOO$  \>6;j.ouq  6  #eo£  iv  rf/  r^iifia  ^xsj'vij, 
dM.d  y.a.0'  00$  abrbs   e'Orjx-. — S.  Chrysost,    Homil.  ii.,   De 
Matrimonio. 

4  Alioe  sunt  leges  Ctesarum,  aliae  Christi;  aliud  Papinianus,  aliud 
Paulus  noster  praecipit.  —  S.  Hieron.,  Epist.  ad  Oceanian,  n.  3. 

5  Audi  legem  Domini,  cui  obsequantur  etiam  qui  leges  ferunt ;  quae 
Deus,  etc. — S.  Ambros.,  in  cap.  vi.   Luc.,  n.  5. 


The  Conjugal  Tie.  45 

wherever  churches  are  founded.  Fifteen  centu- 
ries old,  it  reigns  uncontested  at  the  period  when 
Luther  inaugurates  the  age  of  moral  decay  which 
tends  to  bring  the  world  regenerated  by  Christ 
back  to  the  loose  and  corrupt  manners  of  anti- 
quity. Luther,  this  libertine  monk,  restless  under 
the  yoke  of  religion,  aspires  to  release  himself  from 
the  vows  which  bind  him  to  perpetual  chastity.  As 
an  apology  for  the  scandal  which  he  is  giving  to 
the  Christian  world  he  finds  nothing  better  than  to 
deny  the  qualities  of  unity  and  indissolubility  which 
were  restored  to  marriage  by  Christ.  And  as  if 
the  liberty  of  divorce  were  not  sufficient  to  gain  for 
him  the  favor  of  the  dissolute  princes  whose  protec- 
tion he  covets,  he  allows  them  to  practise  polygamy. 
Polygamy,  says  he,  is  after  all  but  a  return  to 
patriarchal  customs.  '  But  this  return  must  be 
discreet,  so  as  not  to  affright  the  people  accustomed 
by  the  Christian  law  to  conjugal  unity.  Luther 
is  ashamed  of  the  license  which  he  grants,  but 
the  watchful  Church  sees  in  it  an  open  door  by 
which  corruption  of  manners  is  about  to  enter 
into  the  Christian  familv.  It  is  time  to  determine 
the  dogmatic  formula  of  the  law  and  to  place 
it  under  the  protection  of  anathema.  Anathema, 
then,  says  the  Council  of  Trent  to  those  who  per- 
mit Christians  to  have  many  wives,  as  if  it  were  not 
forbidden  by  any  divine  law.  *  Anathema  to  those 

1  Profitebatur  Lutherus  se  "poligamire  consuetudinem  nee  intro- 
ducere  vclle,  nee  improbare,  posse  autem  quia  Patrum  exempla  adhuc 
libera  sunt."  —  Comment,  in  cap.  xvi.  Genes.  Cit.  Bellarm. 

*  Si  quis  dixerit  liccre  christianis  plures  simul  habere  uxores,  et  hoc 
nulla  lege  divina  esse  prohibitum,  anathema  sit. — Sess.  xxiv.  can.  2. 


46  The  Conjugal  Tie. 

who  pretend  that  the  conjugal  tie  can  be  broken. * 
Anathema  to  those  who  accuse  of  error  the  infalli- 
ble authority  of  the  Church  when  she  affirms  that 
not  even  adultery  has  power  to  dissolve  the  union 
which  God  has  made. * 

This  is  the  law,  gentlemen.  Its  origin  is  not 
doubtful.  God  Himself  proclaimed  it  implicitly 
and  prophetically  in  the  beginning  of  time,  and  ex- 
plicitly and  definitely  at  the  solemn  epoch  when 
the  world  was  redeemed.  When  the  Creator 
brought  the  world  out  of  nothing  and  filled  it  with 
life,  He  gave  to  that  life,  with  the  power  of  multi- 
plying itself,  the  rules  and  laws  of  its  prolificness. 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Creator  of  a  moral  and  religious 
world,  exercised  the  same  power.  He  gave  it  a 
new  life,  and  He  certainly  had  the  right  to  regulate 
the  conditions  of  the  unions  from  which  a  holy  race 
was  to  be  born.  Christ  does  nothing  extraordinary. 
He  connects  the  regeneration  of  humanity  with 
the  immaculate  creation,  passing  over  all  the  ages 
that  sin  had  dishonored.  He  determines,  He 
limits,  He  fixes  by  an  absolute  law  the  divine  plan 
which  the  human  race  would  have  originally  fol- 


1  Si  quis  dixerit  propterhoeresim,  aut  molestam  cohabitationem,  aut 
aflectatam  absentiam  a  conjuge,  dissolvi  posse  matrimonii  vinculum, 
anathema  sit. — Ibid.,  can.  5. 

2  Si  quis  dixerit  Ecclesiam  errare,  cum  docuit  et  docet,  juxta  evan- 
gelicam  et  apostolicam  doctrinam,  propter  adulterium  alterius  conju- 
gum  matrimonii  vinculum  non  posse  dissolvi;  et  utrumque.  etiam  in- 
nocentem,  qui  causam  adulterio  non  dedit,  non  posse,  altero  conjuge 
vivente,  aliud  matrimonium  contrahere ;  mrecharique  eum,  qui  dimissa 
adultera,  aliam  duxerit,  et  earn,  quae,  dimisso  adultero,  alii  nupserit; 
anathema  sit. — Ibid.,  can.  7. 


The  Conjugal  Tic.  47 

lowed,  without  hindrance  or  contradiction,  had  it 
preserved  its  original  innocence.  It  was  His  right 
as  Creator  to  do  so. 

It  was  also  Christ's  right  as  Redeemer.  In  or- 
der to  redeem  the  world  He  had  humiliated  the 
divine  majesty  by  uniting  it  with  our  fallen  nature. 
That  union  was  full  of  suffering,  and  should  be  a 
source  of  life  and  glory  for  us.  Was  it  not  right 
that  the  Redeemer  should  make  the  human  family 
submit  to  the  unity  and  indissolubility  of  marriage 
as  a  small  return  for  the  fruitful  humiliations  of 
His  Incarnation? 

In  establishing  the  unity  and  indissolubility  of 
marriage  Jesus  Christ  merely  exercises  His  right 
as  Benefactor.  In  redeeming  man,  Christ  trans- 
forms him.  He  puts  grace  in  all  the  phases  of  his 
spiritual  life.  It  is  grace  which  begets  him  super- 
naturally.  grace  which  increases  and  strengthens 
him,  grace  which  nourishes  and  restores  him,  grace 
which  cures  him  of  his  faults,  and  reconciles  him 
to  God;  it  is  grace  which  perfects  his  purification, 
and  opens  to  him  the  gates  of  eternity ;  grace  which 
gives  him  dignity  and  divine  powers  in  the  priest- 
hood ;  grace  which  unites  him  to  her  whom  he  has 
chosen  for  the  companion  of  his  life. 

In  sanctifying  the  marriage  union,  has  not 
Christ  the  right  to  show  Himself  exacting?  And 
if  the  indissoluble  unity  of  the  conjugal  tie  demands 
from  husband  and  wife  both  effort  and  sacrifice, 
can  they  complain  without  ingratitude,  since  the 
sacrament  which  ennobles  their  yoke  gives  them 
the  courage  and  strength  to  bear  the  sacred  bur- 


48  The  Conjugal  Tie. 

den  until  death,  if  they  receive  it  with  pure  hearts  ? 

Finally,  gentlemen,  the  legislation  of  the  conju- 
gal tie  is  the  right  of  Christ  in  His  office  as  our 
Great  Exemplar.  Man  is  the  image  and  likeness  of 
God ;  the  Christian  is  the  image  and  likeness  of 
Christ.  He  should  be  so  in  everything.  As  an 
indissoluble  unity  in  perfect  love  is  the  condition 
of  the  marriage  between  Christ  and  His  Church, 
so  also  is  the  marriage  of  the  Christian  with  her 
whom  he  marries,  in  order  that,  on  one  side  as  on 
the  other,  we  may  say,  in  the  words  of  the  Apos- 
tle, "  This  is  a  great  mystery  :  "  Mysterium  hoc  mag. 
num  est. 

Yes,  gentlemen,  a  great  mystery.  And  in  the 
shadows  of  this  great  mystery  your  Christian 
souls  should  submit  to  the  certain  law  of  God, 
even  if  you  should  find  in  the  world  of  nature  no 
aspiration,  no  law  which  justifies  its  holy  austerity. 
But  it  is  not  so.  Nature  gives  to  the  law  of  indis- 
soluble union  its  full  approval,  for  it  is  a  law  of 
progress  and  perfection. 

II. 

Let  us  first  understand  clearly,  gentlemen,  the 
meaning  of  this  word — Nature.  The  great  major- 
ity of  those  who  rebel  against  the  indissoluble 
unity  of  the  conjugal  tie  do  not  attach  the  same 
meaning  to  it  as  we  do.  For  them,  nature  does 
not  go  beyond  the  gloomy  and  excitable  region  of 
the  appetites,  and  definitely,  it  is  the  human  beast 
which  concerns  them  more  than  anything  else  in 
the  question  of  marriage.  All  that  prevents  the 


The  Conjugal  Tie.  49 

gratification  of  the  animal  man,  all  that  condemns 
him  to  obey  a  nobler  power,  is  regarded  with  ab- 
horrence by  their  materialistic  philosophy.  To  op- 
pose the  beast,  is  to  oppose  nature. 

We  do  not  thus  understand  the  word,  gentlemen. 
For  us,  nature  is  the  whole  man :  the  carnal  man 
with  his  appetites  and  his  power  of  generation  ;  the 
spiritual  man,  with  his  reason,  heart,  free  activity, 
knowledge  of  duty,  and  capacity  for  virtue.  This 
man  God  had  created  perfect  and  master  of  the 
world.  Was  it  not  right  that,  in  order  to  obey  the 
divine  command  which  desired  his  reproduction, 
he  should  be  distinguished  from  all  other  crea- 
tures by  the  most  perfect  of  unions  ?  What  is  this 
union,  gentlemen  ?  Let  us  seek  in  the  creation. 

We  look  for  it  in  vain  where  promiscuousness 
or  polygamy  are  practised.  But  beyond  the  re- 
gions purely  animal  we  find  it  at  the  head  of  all 
unions.  It  is  the  union  of  one  with  one  alone  and 
forever.  It  is  monogamy,  the  true  marriage,  the 
perfect  state,  in  which  are  realized  all  the  condi- 
tions of  intimacy  and  stability  indicated  by  the 
word  union  in  the  highest  and  fullest  sense  of  the 
word. 

It  is  evident,  gentlemen,  to  any  one  who  has  an 
idea  of  order,  of  progress,  of  perfection,  that  God 
responded  to  a  desire  of  nature  and  to  a  call  of  the 
royal  prerogatives  of  man,  when  He  imposed  on 
our  first  parents  the  law  of  the  indissolubility  of  the 
conjugal  tie,  and  made  the  multiplication  of  the 
most  perfect  of  living  beings  dependent  on  a  most 
perfect  union. 


50  The  Conjugal  Tie. 

It  is  also  evident  that  man  fell  from  the  height 
where  he  governed  nature  when  he  began  to  imi- 
tate in  marriage  the  unions  of  inferior  beings ; 
and  it  is  evident  that  Christ  led  humanity  back 
into  a  path  of  progress  and  perfection  when  He 
restored  the  primitive  institution  of  marriage,  and 
explicitly  and  definitely  promulgated  the  law  of 
its  indissoluble  unity. 

Let  us  enter  into  human  life  itself  and  there  ap- 
ply the  law  of  Christian  marriage.  You  will  see 
that  I  have  spoken  well  in  calling  it  a  law  of  prog- 
ress and  perfection.  It  is  indeed  the  law  which 
belongs  to  true  love  ;  it  is  a  school  of  virtue,  the 
cement  of  the  family,  and  the  honor  of  human 
society.  We  cannot  fully  explain  the  entirety  of 
the  gift  which  two  human  beings  make  to  each 
other  of  their  persons,  without  seeking  its  cause 
in  that  deep  and  powerful  sentiment  which  makes 
the  heart  beat,  and  which  we  call  love.  I  do  not 
blush  to  speak  of  it,  for,  if  men  have  soiled  it,  God 
has  purified  it.  It  was  noble  and  great  in  the 
young  heart  of  our  first  father,  when  he  called  to 
his  arms  the  bone  of  his  bones  and  the  flesh  of  his 
flesh ;  it  can  be  noble  and  great  in  the  hearts  of 
those  who,  like  our  first  parents,  marry  under  the 
eye  of  God.  Do  not  seek  this  love  in  the  feverish 
passion  whose  throbs  are  evoked  by  carnal  beauty, 
a  passion  strong  as  a  tempest  and  as  fleeting,  too 
strained  not  to  weary  the  soul,  too  attached  to 
perishable  attractions  not  to  .perish  with  them. 
True  love  knows  how  to  free  itself  from  the  senses 
and  to  lay  hold  of  that  immaterial  beauty  on  which 


The  Conjugal  Tie.  51 

time  and  the  forces  of  nature  have  no  power.  It 
does  not  allow  itself  to  be  ensnared,  but  chooses  its 
object;  and  the  choice  made,  it  says  to  itself: 
"  Here  is  my  rest  forever,"  Hcec  requics  in  sceculum 
stzculi.  It  is  union  that  it  desires,  union  that  it 
seeks ;  an  intimate,  profound,  complete  union,  so 
energetically  expressed  in  these  words  of  the  Sa- 
cred Scriptures :  "  Two  in  one  flesh,"  Duo  in 
carne  una.  The  more  extended  its  rights,  the  bet- 
ter it  understands  its  duties ;  and  if  it  expects  that 
they  shall  be  given  to  it  in  all  sincerity  and  with- 
out reserve,  it  gives  itself  with  the  same  plenitude. 
By  dividing  his  heart,  a  man  who  truly  loves 
would  consider  himself  debased  ;  he  would  accuse 
himself  of  falsehood  had  he  a  thought  of  taking 
back  what  he  has  given  ;  and  he  only  fully  and  will- 
ingly expresses  himself  when  he  can  say  :  "  I  am 
yours  as  you  are  mine,  I  am  yours  entirely  and 
forever.  Our  lives  henceforth  are  but  one  from 
now  until  death.  '  Favor  is  deceitful  and  beauty 
is  vain. ' '  But  if  favor  and  beauty  have  been 
allurements  for  me,  there  are  other  riches  which 
I  covet,  which  I  pursue,  which  I  esteem  and  love. 
On  the  ruins  of  those  charms  which  allure  and 
speak  to  the  senses,  these  possessions  appear  to  me 
more  beautiful,  more  desirable,  more  worthy  of  at- 
tachment. Let  us  leave  behind  that  which  is  per- 
ishable and  let  us  love  each  other  always  !  " 

Is  it  not  thus,  gentlemen,  that  you  understand 
and  feel  real  love  ?  Is  it  not  thus  that  noble  hearts 
understand  and  feel  it  ?  Is  it  not  unnecessary  to 

1   Prov.  xxxi.  30. 


52  The  Conjugal  Tie. 

seek  far  for  the  law  which  is  suitable  for  it  in  conju- 
gal union  ?  It  spontaneously  precedes  it,  it  is  the 
law  of  indissoluble  union. 

I  say  in  the  second  place,  gentlemen,  that  the 
indissoluble  unity  of  the  conjugal  tie  is  a  school  of 
virtue.  However  pure  and  strong  true  love  may 
be,  it  needs  to  be  protected  by  the  law  of  duty, 
and  to  be  strengthened  by  the  practice  of  virtue, 
the  most  beautiful  ornament  of  human  dignity. 

There  is  one  virtue  which  indissolubility  of  mar- 
riage imposes  on  true  love  at  its  first  approach. 
It  is  prudence.  We  do  not  bind  ourselves  forever 
without  weighing  the  chains  which  we  wish  to 
carry ;  we  do  not  give  ourselves  entirely  and  for- 
ever without  sounding  the  abyss  whither  we  are 
going  to  plunge.  The  blind  passion  of  the  senses 
is  capable  of  this  folly,  but  true  love  does  not 
bind  itself  or  give  its  confidence  except  in  good 
earnest.  Warned  by  the  law  which  shall  bind 
it,  it  waits,  gets  information,  seeks  under  out- 
ward attractions  and  advantages  those  amiable 
and  solid  qualities  which  may  assure  it  peace  and 
happiness.  It  asks  of  the  present  favorable  augu- 
ries for  the  future.  It  is  possible  that  true  love 
may  be  deceived,  and  then  other  virtues  can  re- 
pair its  error,  but  without  doubt  it  most  frequent- 
ly owes  to  the  austere  law  which  has  made  it  pru- 
dent the  tranquillity  and  joy  of  the  hearth  where 
its  life  is  mingled  with  another  life. 

The  indissoluble  unity  of  marriage  is  more  than 
a  school  of  prudence.  It  is  a  school  of  justice. 
Justice  is  more  or  less  outraged  where  the  con- 


Tlie  Conjugal  Tic.  53 

jtigal  tie  is  divided  and  broken.  It  is  generally 
the  wife  who  suffers  from  the  outrage.  The  com- 
petition of  our  loves  diminishes  her  share,  and  she 
becomes  the  humiliated  slave  of  a  capricious  pas- 
sion. The  wife  brings  into  the  common  life  the 
charms  of  her  sex  and  the  inestimable  treasure 
of  her  modesty.  Who  shall  give  her  back  her 
charms  if  the  husband  has  the  power  to  put  her 
away  when  he  grows  tired  of  her  faded  beauty 
and  withered  flesh  ?  He  would  keep  all  his  ad- 
vantages, and  she  would  lose  her  best  treasures ! 
If  the  husband  has  that  power,  then  God  lied 
when,  on  the  day  He  completed  the  work  of  His 
creation,  He  said  :  "  Let  us  make  him  a  help  like 
unto  himself :"  Facia mus  ei  adjutorium  simile  sibi. 
If  the  husband  can  sever  the  marriage  tie  we  must 
believe  that  woman  brought  only  an  inferiority  of 
right  and  an  inferiority  of  nature  into  the  first 
marriage  union,  so  mysteriously  prepared  and  so 
solemnly  blessed  to  serve  as  a  type  of  all  future 
marriages.  Such  was  not  the  case,  gentlemen. 
In  the  design  of  God  woman  was  the  normal  com- 
plement of  man,  and  the  tie  which  unites  them 
must  be  knotted  by  justice. 

It  is  indissoluble  unity  which  brings  into  mar- 
riage this  holy  justice,  suppressing  all  rivalry  of 
love  and  assuring  an  equality  of  gifts  as  well  as 
their  continuance  through  life  to  both ;  the  hus- 
band belonging  solely,  entirely,  and  forever  to  his 
wife,  and  the  wife,  solely,  entirely,  and  forever  to 
her  husband. 

But  the  perpetual  double  life  cannot  be  to-day 


54  The  Conjugal  Tie, 

what  it  might  have  been  if  humanity  had  preserved 
the  privileges  of  its  innocence.  Between  two  fall- 
en and  fatally  imperfect  natures  it  is  impossible 
that  there  should  not  be  unexpected  revelations 
and  sad  shocks  in  which  souls  are  wounded.  And 
if  wills  were  free  to  retract,  they  might  take  coun- 
sel only  of  bad  temper  and  human  weakness  to 
break  a  union  become  hard  and  heavy  to  bear. 
But  the  law  of  indissolubility  restrains  and  obliges 
them  to  practise  a  virtue  in  which  the  greatness 
of  man  is  revealed.  That  virtue  is  fortitude. 
Fortitude,  which  combats  the  defects  and  faults 
incidental  to  married  life,  and  strives  to  lessen,  if  it 
cannot  remove  them ;  fortitude,  which  bears  with 
patience  the  sad  shocks  it  is  impossible  to  avoid, 
and  resists  the  impulses  which  test  the  strength 
of  the  indestructible  marriage  tie ;  fortitude,  which 
knows  how  to  subdue  pride  and  ask  for  pardon. 
This  virtue  of  fortitude  is  permeated  with  the 
unction  of  a  charity  that  is  rich  in  forethought,  in 
pity,  and  in  the  loving  exchange  of  sacrifice. 

This  is  not  all.  Ancient  philosophy  invited 
men  to  moral  progress  and  to  perfection  by 
the  noble  maxim,"  Bear  and  forbear: " — sustinc,  ab- 
stine.  The  law  of  the  unity  and  indissolubility  of 
the  marriage  tie  applies  that  maxim  with  sovereign 
authority  to  married  life.  The  fortitude  which 
bears  with  the  trials  of  conjugal  life  should  be 
completed  by  the  temperance  which  abstains. 
One  of  the  ends  of  marriage  is  to  calm  the  tur- 
bulence of  the  flesh,  but  there  are  occasions  when 
it  does  not  attain  that  end.  Those  who  know  not 


The  Conjugal  Tic.  55 

how  to  resist  the  animal  promptings  of  man  de- 
mand other  unions ;  but  the  man  who  is  regen- 
erated by  Christ  and  is  obedient  to  His  law  knows 
that  the  senses  have  no  rights  opposed  to  duty. 
He  knows,  too,  that  it  is  good  and  even  necessary 
that  the  soul  should  from  time  to  time  assert  her 
dignity,  and  should  exercise  her  dominion  over  the 
lower  promptings  of  the  senses  by  keeping  from 
them  the  pleasures  they  covet.  When  the  senses 
are  disciplined  by  temperance,  they  leave  the  field 
open  to  the  pleasures  of  the  heart,  the  noblest  and 
sweetest  that  man  can  taste. 

You  have  often  heard  it  said,  gentlemen,  that 
we  must  make  a  virtue  of  necessity.  Nowhere  is 
that  old  proverb  better  applied  than  to  the  indis- 
soluble unity  of  the  conjugal  tie.  If  the  divine 
law  does  violence  to  our  animal  inclinations,  it  is 
so  far  in  perfect  accord  with  reason,  which  wishes 
the  progress  and  perfection  of  our  moral  life. 

God  has  not  forged  the  indestructible  chain  of 
marriage  for  the  mere  purpose  of  satisfying  the 
wishes  of  true  love  and  opening  for  husbands  and 
wives  a  school  of  great  virtue.  He  has  had  care 
of  a  feeble  and  charming  being,  who  will  need  for 
some  time  the  double  protection  of  strength  and  ten- 
derness. Admirable  arrangement  of  Providence! 
The  more  perfect  the  union  of  life  with  life,  the 
slower  the  growth  of  its  offspring.  The  being 
born  from  the  fortuitous  and  blind  meetings  of 
promiscuousness  finds  at  its  birth  the  elements 
necessary  for  its  development,  and  it  has  organs 
which  act  without  delay  in  appropriating  and 


56  The  Conjugal  Tie. 

assimilating  them.  If  a  more  perfect  instinct 
brings  the  sexes  together,  life  needs  for  some  time 
the  assistance  of  the  beings  that  gave  it  existence. 
But  it  is  only  for  a  season.  The  animal  soon  learns 
all  that  is  necessary  to  take  care  of  itself.  It  is  alto- 
gether different  where  love  enlightened  by  reason 
makes  its  choice.  It  is  the  privilege  of  the  human 
being  that  the  child  demands  for  many  years  the 
solicitude  and  care  of  its  parents  to  succor  its  help- 
lessness. How  powerful  and  tenacious  are  the 
ties  between  parents  and  child  !  It  is  truly  said 
of  the  father  and  mother  "  they  are  two  in  one 
flesh : "  duo  in  carne  una.  They  are  one  by  the 
blood  of  their  veins,  by  the  love  of  their  hearts,  in 
that  flesh  taken  from  their  own  flesh  which  re- 
produces their  features  and  bears  the  impression 
of  their  souls.  They  are  one  in  that  fragile 
flesh  whose  life  will  be  extinguished  if  not  sus- 
tained and  guarded  with  affectionate  and  untiring 
care  ;  in  that  mysterious  flesh  in  which  the  dor- 
mant soul  awaits  its  awakening  to  thought  and 
will. 

"  Marriage,"  says  an  eloquent  bishop,  "  creates 
between  parents  and  children  strong  and  indissolu- 
ble ties,  and  yet  some  would  wish  it  to  be  in  itself 
only  a  fragile  tie !  But  then  the  effects  would 
be  greater  than  their  cause."  Father,  mother, 
should  you  shut  your  ears  to  the  voice  of  God, 

1  II  matrimonio  crea  vincoli  indissolubili  tra  i  coniugi  ed  i  figli  ;  e 
sarebbe  esso  un  vincolo  solubile  ;  sarebbe  itiai,  che  gli  effetti  fossero 
maggiori  della  loro  causn.  —  Mgr.  Bonomelli,  bishop  of  Cremona,  Pas- 
toral Instruction:  Sitl Divorzio. 


The  Conjugal  Tie.  57 

you  can  never  stifle  the  voice  of  nature  which 
bids  you  remain  united.  Remain  united  each  to 
each.  Another  love  would  turn  you  away  from 
your  duty  and  awaken  jealous  and  quarrelsome 
passions  which  would  disturb  the  peace  of  your 
hearth. '  Remain  united !  father,  to  protect  the 
wife  who  devotes  herself  day  and  night  to  the  little 
creature  to  whom  you  have  given  life  ;  mother, 
to  accomplish  without  uneasiness  and  without  fear 
your  noble  task  of  devotion.5  Remain  united!  in 
order  that  the  light  of  your  reason  and  the  tender- 
ness of  your  hearts  may  penetrate  the  soul  of  your 
child.  Remain  united !  to  cast  into  this  virgin  soil 
the  seed  of  those  virtues  without  which  man  has 
no  right  to  live  ;  remain  united  !  to  cultivate  to- 
gether the  sacred  germs  which  you  have  sown. 
There  must  be  two  persons  to  cause  the  dawn  of 
life,  two  to  guide  it  to  its  complete  development. 
A  father  alone  is  authority  too  severe,  reason  too 
cold,  strength  to  weighty  ;  a  mother  all  alone  is  love 
without  restraint,  gentleness  without  guidance, 
tenderness  without  correction.  Both  are  need- 
ful for  education.  Nature  has  joined  and  mingled 
them  together  as  two  elements  which  complete 

1  Non  facile  potest  esse  pax  in  familia  ubi  uno  viro  plures  uxores 
junguntur,cum  non  possit  unus  vir  sufficere  ad  satisfaciendum  pluribus 
uxoribus  ad  votum  ;  et  etiam  quia  communicaiioplurium  in  unoofficio 
causat  litem. — Summ.  Theol.,  supp.,  qusest.  45,  a.  I. 

8  Matrimonium  ex  intentione  naturae  ordinatur  ad  educationem  prolis, 
non  solum  ad  aliquod  tempus,  sed  per  totam  vitam  prolis.  Ideo  cum 
proles  sit  commune  bonum  viri  et  uxoris,  oportet  societatem  eorum 
perpetuo  permanere  indivisam,  secundum  legis  naturae  dictamen.  — 
Ibid  ,  qusest.  47,  a.  j. 


58  The  Conjugal  Tie. 

each  other,  and  whence  light  and  heat  spring  forth 
in  the  soul  of  the  child. ' 

Fathers,  mothers,  remain,  then,  united,  in  order 
to  multiply  life  around  you,  and  to  surround  your- 
selves with  a  crown  of  living  beings  who  shall  be 
your  glory,  because  they  will  reproduce  your  vir- 
tues. Remain  united !  that  your  children  may  re- 
turn to  you,  in  tender  respect  and  pious  help,  all 
the  good  you  shall  have  done  them.  Remain 
united  !  that  you  may  see  yourselves  live  again  in 
the  offspring  of  those  who  are  the  issue  of  your 
generous  life.  Remain  united  !  to  serve  as  a  pat- 
tern to  those  who  shall  become  united  after  you, 
and  to  cement  by  your  unchangeable  fidelity  the 
sacred  unity  of  the  family. 

Glorious  are  those  families  where  the  indis- 
soluble unity  of  the  conjugal  tie  links  the  past 
with  the  future,  and  creates  th6se  peaceful  tra- 
ditions through  which  each  generation  seeks  its 
ancestors !  In  them  are  never  heard  the  groans 
of  love  betrayed,  or  complaints  of  desertion.  In 
them  are  not  found  children  hatefully  disposed,  to 
whom  has  been  transferred  the  sad  heritage  of  a 
father's  angry  passions  or  a  mother's  feelings  of 

1  Abbandonate  la  tutta  (1'educazione)  al  solo  padre :  voi  generalmente 
avrete  1'autorita  che  riesce  dura,  1'intelligenza  che  e  fredda  e  la  forza 
che  aggrava;  lasciate  la  in  balla  della  sola  madre,  e  avrete  1'amore 
senza  autorita,  la  dolcezza  e  la  tenerezza  senza  il  oorrettivo  dell'  intel- 
ligenza  e  della  forza.  La  natura  stessa  pertanto  vuole  accoppiati  e  fusi 
insieme  i  due  elemenli  necessarii  alia  educazione  del  figli ;  1'elemento 
paterno  e  1'elernento  materno  :  sono  due  forze,  che  per  produrre  il  loro 
effetto,  vogliono  essere  unite ;  sono  duo  raggi,  che  si  debbono  con- 
centrare  sopra  di  uno  punto  per  ottenerne  la  luce  ed  il  calore. — Mgr. 
Bonomelli,  Sul  Divorzio. 


The  Conjugal  Tie.  59 

rancor.  In  them  gloomy  jealousy  is  not  suffered, 
nor  the  deep  antagonism  caused  by  divided  love 
and  the  injustice  of  capricious  repudiation.  Glori- 
ous families  !  They  are  respected,  and  their  alli- 
ance is  sought,  and  by  their  alliances  they  cause 
to  radiate  around  them  the  honesty,  peace,  and 
prosperity  of  which  they  are  the  centres.  Glori- 
ous families !  a  perpetual  honor  to  society,  where- 
in they  are  the  elements  of  a  unity  indispensable  to 
every  people  that  desires  to  live. 

I  say  no  more  to-day,  gentlemen.  The  truths 
you  have  just  heard  will  be  more  fully  developed 
when,  in  the  next  conference,  we  shall  speak  of  what 
is  opposed  to  them.  For  the  moment  I  think  I 
have  attained  my  end,  which  was  to  prove  that 
nature  fully  acquiesces  in  the  divine  law  of  the  in- 
dissoluble unity  of  the  conjugal  tie.  This  law 
ennobles  love,  ennobles  the  moral  life,  ennobles 
the  family,  ennobles  society  ;  it  is,  therefore,  a  law 
of  progress  and  perfection. 

We  hear  certain  reformers  of  conjugal  societv 
say  that  they  willingly  dispense  with  that  perfec- 
tion, and  taking  the  world  as  it  is,  they  are  content 
to  chastise  its  vices.  Miserable  failure  of  Protes- 
tant cowardice  opposing  the  sublime  character 
which  Christ  by  His  law  has  imprinted  on  mar- 
ried life.  Who  has  the  right  to  oppose  nature  when 
God  pleases  to  help  it  become  perfect?  Who  has 
the  right  to  make  humanity  go  backward  when 
God  urges  it  forward  ?  Contemptible  reformers, 
you  make  liars  of  yourselves,  for  you  are  always 
boasting  that  you  are  men  of  progress.  You,  men 


60  The  Conjugal  Tie. 

of  progress !  and  you  mock  a  law  which  gives 
true  love  its  rights,  places  man  in  the  happy  neces- 
sity of  perfecting  his  moral  life,  consolidates  the 
family,  and  assures  to  society  the  elements  of  a 
glorious  existence.  You,  men  of  progress !  and 
you  would  bring  us  back  to  the  time  when  fallen 
man  degraded  marriage  and  lived  like  a  beast. 
You,  men  of  progress !  and  you  oppose  the  divine 
impulse  which  tends  to  raise  the  married  man 
above  his  animal  nature,  and  to  place  him  on  the 
royal  summit  from  which  he  is  lord  of  all  nature. 
False  reformers,  be  silent  rather  than  speak  false- 
hood !  The  men  of  progress  are  the  apostles  and 
faithful  observers  of  the  indissoluble  unity  of  the 
conjugal  tie.  Christ  has  made  them  see  depraved 
humanity  reduced  to  the  level  of  the  beast  through 
its  faithlessness  to  the  primitive  institution  of  mar- 
riage, and  He  has  said  to  them :  "  Go  up  higher :  " 
Ascende  superius.  And  they,  obeying  at  the  same 
time  the  noble  aspirations  of  nature  and  the  voice 
of  God,  have  nobly  answered  :  "  Let  us  ascend  :  " 
Ascendamus. 


CONFERENCE  III. 


MY  LORD'  AND  GENTLEMEN:  —  In  our  last  con- 
ference I  promised  to  give  counter-proofs  of  the 
truths  explained  in  it,  and  I  shall  do  so  now. 

As  \ve  have  already  said,  the  properties  of 
the  conjugal  tie  are  its  unity  and  indissolubility. 
These  properties,  strengthened  by  a  divine  law 
and  by  the  grace  of  the  sacrament,  answer  the  re- 
quirements of  nature,  which  demands  for  man  and 
wife  the  most  perfect  union,  and  which  also  as- 
pires to  progress  and  perfection  in  the  individual, 
in  the  family,  and  in  society.  Your  noble  souls, 
I  am  persuaded,  are  in  full  sympathy  with  this 
doctrine:  still  I  deem  it  my  duty  to  show  you  the 
\\orthlessness  of  the  arguments  of  the  so-called 
reformers  who  would  change  the  character  of  the 
conjugal  tie. 

We  can  say  this  much  to  the  credit  of  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  divine  law  :  They  do  not  want  to 
revive  the  manners  of  ancient  times,  the  free 
practice  of  which  Luther  permitted  to  people  of 
rank.  We  can  also  say  that  they  agree  with  us 
about  the  eminently  progressive  character  of  mon- 
ogamy, and  the  disadvantages  and  inconveniences 
of  polygamy. 


1  Monseigneur  Richard,  Archbishop  of  Paris. 
61 


62  Divorce. 

In  polygamy  man  abandons  himself  to  the  agi- 
tating pleasures  of  sensation,  to  the  ruin  of  his  in- 
tellectual and  moral  life,  and  to  the  degradation  of 
his  dignity  ;  in  it  the  degraded  wife  becomes  the 
servant — one  might  say  the  slave — of  a  base  pas- 
sion, and  the  human  family  is  like  a  flock  divided 
and  troubled  by  jealousies  and  quarrels.  In  a  word, 
polygamy  brings  the  human  being  to  the  level  of 
the  beast.  Eighteen  centuries  of  Christianity  have 
made  polygamy  so  rare  and  odious  that  the  bitter- 
est enemies  of  the  Christian  law  of  marriage  look 
with  contempt  and  disgust  on  the  harems  of  the 
East  and  the  licentious  follies  of  Mormonism. 
But  it  is  different  when  there  is  question  of  the 
indissoluble  unity  of  the  marriage  tie.  There  is 
quite  a  number  of  meddlers  in  philosophy  and  law 
who  look  upon  the  indissolubility  of  the  conjugal 
tie  as  a  tyrannical  law.  They  think  that  modern 
society  should  have  the  right  to  break  a  yoke  which 
human  nature  is  unable  to  bear. 

Let  us  first  examine,  gentlemen,  the  arguments 
brought  against  the  divine  law.  I  hope  to  show 
you  how  worthless  they  are. 

I  shall  then  show  you  that  divorce,  by  which  it 
is  proposed  to  replace  the  divine  law,  is  worse 
than  all  the  evils  for  which  indissolubility  is  held 
responsible,  and  that  it  is  a  principle  of  decay  for 
human  society. 


When  special  decrees  are  made  for  individuals 
they  are   proportioned   to   their  strength.     Laws 


Divorce.  63 

have  not  this  narrow  character.  They  look  to  the 
general  well-being,  and  are  made  for  the  multitude. 
If  by  their  application  to  individuals  they  may  be 
inconvenient,  and  impose  here  and  there  a  greater 
restraint,  that  is  no  reason  for  their  abrogation 
when  they  are  conducting  human  society  forward 
in  the  path  of  progress  and  perfection. 

Such  is  the  law  of  indissolubility.  It  is  a  law 
for  a  race,  ordained,  as  you  have  seen,  for  the  per- 
fection of  our  nature  and  for  the  general  well-being 
of  humanity.  That  the  individual  should  some- 
times suffer  from  it,  is  not  astonishing ;  to  adduce 
this  suffering  as  a  pretext  to  get  rid  of  the  law  is 
absurd.  Admit  in  principle  that  a  law  can  and 
should  be  suppressed  because  it  bears  hardly  in 
some  of  its  special  applications,  and  you  will  ren- 
der all  order  and  morality  impossible. 

It  is,  however,  in  some  such  fashion  that  the 
opponents  of  the  indissolubility  of  the  marriage  tie 
proceed.  They  tell  in  bitter  language  some  of  the 
inconveniences  of  the  divine  law,  and  even  invent 
others  to  enlarge  the  sum  of  their  grievances. 
You  might  make  a  volume  of  the  reasons  for  not 
accepting  the  law  of  indissolubility  which  they  ac- 
cumulate against  it.  I  will  not  enter  in  detail  on 
these  inconveniences,  griefs,  and  reasons  for  non- 
acceptance  of  the  divine  law.  To  deal  justly,  it 
will  suffice  to  reduce  them  to  the  three  following 
heads : 

First,  the  law  of  indissoluble  unity  is  an  out- 
rage on  human  liberty,  which  it  binds  with  the 
chains  of  slavery  ; 


64  Divorce. 

Secondly,  the  law  of  indissoluble  unity  tends  to 
frustrate  the  principal  intention  of  marriage  ; 

Thirdly,  the  law  of  indissoluble  unity  exposes 
those  whom  it  irrevocably  unites  to  being  deprived 
unjustly  and  hopelessly  of  the  happiness  to  which 
they  are  entitled  when  they  enter  into  conjugal 
society  ;  it  exasperates  and  urges  them  to  crime. 

Liberty  is  so  great  a  possession  that  we  must 
never  give  it  up  except  in  good  earnest,  and  never 
abdicate  our  right  to  take  it  again.  To  bind  one's 
self  forever,  as  is  done  in  an  indissoluble  marriage  ; 
to  forge,'  in  a  moment,  a  chain  which  can  never  be 
broken,  this  is  criminal  folly.  Are  we  master  of 
the  heart  which  says  to  us  to-day  :  "  I  love  you  "  ? 
Are  we  sure  of  our  own  hearts?  Can  we  foresee 
the  shortcomings  of  weakness  and  the  betrayals  of 
inconstancy  ?  Is  it  allowable  to  throw  one's  self 
body  and  soul  into  the  future,  as  if  one  were  sure  of 
meeting  with  no  deceptions  ?  Rash  young  people, 
who-  exchange  eternal  promises,  you  will  some  day 
regret  the  heavy  and  insupportable  chain  which 
you  have  foolishly  riveted  around  your  liberty, 
and  you  will  be  condemned  to  the  inevitable  shame 
of  either  breaking  your  word  or  submitting  your- 
selves to  an  irremediable  slavery. 

You  will  lament  your  misfortune.  You  will 
blame  yourselves  for  your  fault.  Tears  and  re- 
proaches, all  will  be  useless.  No,  no,  you  cannot, 
you  should  not  expose  yourselves  to  these  humili- 
ations and  misfortunes.  Become  united,  if  you 
love  each  other,  but  keep  your  liberty  as  a  guar- 
antee against  the  surprises  of  the  future.  And  if 


Divorce.  65 

there  is  a  la\v  which  demands  this  sacrifice  from 
you,  reply  to  it  with  all  the  strength  of  your  out- 
raged dignity : — Non  licet  !  It  is  not  lawful. 

Gentlemen,  I  agree  with  the  apologists  of  liberty 
on  this  point :  that  liberty  is  a  great  possession,  and 
that  it  is  a  criminal  folly  to  give  it  up  forever  with- 
out forethought  for  the  future  and  without  pro- 
vision for  the  consequences  of  this  delicate  and 
terrible  sacrifice.  But  listen :  If  liberty  is  a  pos- 
session, it  belongs  to  me.  I  am  its  master  and  can 
dispose  of  it  as  I  will,  to-day,  to-morrow,  in  the 
future,  forever,  provided  I  dispose  of  it  wisely  and 
usefully.  I  know  what  is  meant  by  indissoluble 
union  ;  I  have  contracted  one  with  the  holy  religion 
of  which  I  wear  the  habit ;  and  in  spite  of  the  dis- 
appointments and  sorrows  I  may  have  found  in  it, 
and  which  I  had  foreseen,  I  do  not  at  all  regret  the 
sacrifice  I  made  to  it  of  my  liberty,  for  it  has  been 
repaid  with  inestimable  goods. 

It  is  the  good  in  a  work  that  \ve  ought  to  look 
at,  and  when  this  good  deserves  a  great  sacrifice, 
we  should  make  it.  Now,  gentlemen,  you  know 
the  good  of  the  conjugal  union  strengthened  by 
indissolubility :  it  ennobles  love,  it  ennobles  the 
moral  life,  it  ennobles  the  family,  it  ennobles  soci- 
ety. For  this  it  is  well  worth  while  to  bind  your- 
selves forever.  The  man  who  is  timid  and  selfishly 
careful  of  his  well-being  will  only  take  account  of 
the  evils  possible  in  the  future  in  a  life  united  with 
another  life  ;  the  generous  and  wise  man  takes 
into  account  the  certain  benefits,  the  noble  sincerity 
and  constancy  which  true  love  should  experience 


66  Divorce. 

in  becoming  united  to  another  love ;  the  sacred 
equality  of  gifts  commanded  by  justice ;  the  im- 
mense advantages  which  result  from  the  persever- 
ing union  of  two  hearts  and  two  lives  for  the  edu- 
cation of  children,  the  strengthening  and  uniting 
of  the  family  ;  the  honor  that  all  society  receives 
by  incorporating  into  it  those  elements  of  stability 
supplied  by  families  where  traditions  unite  the 
past  with  the  future,  where  the  indissoluble  unity 
of  the  conjugal  tie  causes  peace  and  honesty  to 
flourish.  The  wise  man  is  not  blind  to  the  adverse 
chances  which  may  cause  him  to  regret  having 
bound  himself.  As  far  as  is  possible  for  human 
prudence,  he  prepares  against  them.  But  his  pre- 
cautions taken,  he  places  above  the  evils  he  may 
fear  the  great  good  he  hopes  and  desires  to  obtain, 
and  even  if  he  has  to  struggle  and  suffer,  he  binds 
himself  forever.  Let  it  not  be  said  that  this  is  not 
permitted.  Then  all  noble  enterprises  to  which 
generous  and  bold  souls  unite  their  lives  would  be 
condemned.  I  maintain  that  it  is  a  most  beautiful 
and  praiseworthy  act  of  liberty  to  bind  one's  self 
forever  to  a  good  which  benefits  the  whole  world. 
To  be  bound  in  that  way,  gentlemen,  is  not  to 
be  a  slave.  Indissolubility  is  not  intended  to  weigh 
as  a  dishonorable  yoke,  but  to  direct  and  lead  on 
the  road  of  moral  progress  that  liberty  which  she 
binds.  By  making  itself  respected,  indissolubility 
imposes  upon  a  man  courageous  efforts,  which  re- 
strain his  passions,  correct  his  vices,  lessen  his 
faults,  perfect  his  good  qualities,  strengthen  his 
virtues,  and  multiply  his  good  actions.  Man  does 


Divorce.  67 

not  lower  and  degrade  himself  by  submitting  to 
and  obeying  the  divine  law  of  the  indissoluble  unity 
of  the  marriage  tie,  but  by  revolting  against  it. 

Besides,  the  opponents  of  indissolubility  have  no 
right  to  show  themselves  so  delicate  and  modest 
with  regard  to  the  pretended  outrage  done  to 
liberty  by  the  perpetual  engagement  which  binds 
the  two  lives  of  those  who  marry  each  to  the 
other.  There  are  among  them  a  great  number 
to  whom  we  might  retort  the  reproach  of  criminal 
folly  which  they  make  against  us.  In  attacking 
the  indissolubility  of  marriage  they  attack  religion 
and  hope  to  wound  it  mortally.  But  in  this  they 
only  obey  the  word  of  command  given  by  the 
pitiless  sects  of  which  they  are  the  sworn  slaves. 
They  themselves  are  tied  by  the  sinister  promises 
which  have  bound  them  in  a  dark  conspiracy  of  evil 
against  all  that  is  holy  and  just.  If  they  wished  to 
break  their  chains,  could  they  do  it  with  impunity  ? 
No.  The  secret  marriages  of  perverse  souls  are 
too  surely  sealed  for  a  divorce  to  be  permitted  them. 
And  it  is  these  slaves  of  iniquity  who  reproach 
most  bitterly  honest  and  Christian  souls  for  the 
eternal  oaths  by  which  they  bind  themselves  to 
obtain  the  greater  good  from  conjugal  society,  at 
the  risk  of  suffering.  Let  them  wash  away  the 
opprobrium  which  binds  their  liberty  before  con- 
cerning themselves  with  ours.  We  do  not  accept 
either  their  advice  or  their  censure ;  for  honest 
men  and  Christians  only  sacrifice  for  good  reasons 
the  liberty  they  have  a  right  to  dispose  of  for 
well  doing ;  it  is  liberty  itself  which  accomplishes 


68  Divorce. 

this  sacrifice,  and  it  is  one  of  her  noblest  actions. 

Granted,  will  some  one  say  to  me.  Let  liberty 
bind  itself.  But  still  it  ought  to  be  sure  of  attain- 
ing the  end  it  has  in  view  when  so  doing.  Among 
the  benefits  by  which  marriage  is  honored,  theol- 
ogy, agreeing  with  the  instincts  of  nature,  places 
children  in  the  first  rank :  Primum  bonum  matri- 
monii  est  proles.  It  is  in  order  to  see  themselves 
live  again  in  these  charming  beings  that  man  and 
woman  exchange  their  oaths  of  love.  The  child 
is  their  honor,  for  in  him  they  participate  in  the 
paternity  of  God  ;  the  child  is  their  happiness,  for 
in  him  their  hearts  meet  to  love  each  other  still 
more.  Happy  the  homes  where  the  husband, 
regarding  with  a  tender  eye  the  dear  offspring  of 
his  life,  can  say  :  "  I  shall  not  die  entirely  !  "  Non 
omnis  moriar  !  Happy  the  homes  where  conju- 
gal love  reposes  and  refreshes  itself  in  another 
holy  and  legitimate  love. 

But  alas !  there  are  homes  not  blessed  with  the 
presence  of  children,  where  the  husband  and 
wife,  in  sad  tete  a  tete,  await  in  vain  the  offspring 
they  desire  and  which  should  rejoice  their  lives. 
If  only  they  might  leave  each  other,  and  seek  else- 
where a  fertile  union.  But  no ;  indissolubility 
rivets  them  to  perpetual  sterility,  interminably  pro- 
longs their  disappointment,  and  in  their  persons 
outrages  marriage  itself  in  depriving  it  hopelessly 
of  its  chief  benefit.  Have  we  not  reason  to  revolt 
against  such  a  law  ?  • 

Yes,  gentlemen,  the  opponents  of  indissolubility 
would  have  a  right  to  revolt  if  sterility  in  mar- 


Divorce.  69 

riage  were  the  rule,  and  fecundity  the  exception. 
But  you  are  aware  that  it  is  precisely  the  contrary. 
We  should  return  here  to  the  principle  which 
served  us  as  a  starting-point ;  namely,  that  in  the 
general  application  of  a  law  individuals  may  suffer, 
but  that  that  is  not  a  sufficient  reason  for  abrogating 
the  law.  From  the  lowest  depth  to  the  summit  of 
living  nature,  everywhere  the  great  law  of  repro- 
duction suffers  from  exceptions.  In  blessing  th  e 
germs  with  which  fertile  virtue  should  people  the 
universe,  God  did  not  bind  Himself  to  guarantee 
them  from  all  the  accidents  which  might  limit 
their  power.  How  many  lives  are  lost  in  this  way 
in  the  immense  germination  of  life  which  takes 
place  every  day  !  If  you  ask  me,  Why?  I  reply,  It 
is  a  secret  of  the  providence  of  God.  Those  who 
believe  in  Providence  should  adore  its  decrees  and 
leave  its  laws  to  fulfil  themselves.  As  to  the  law 
with  which  we  are  now  concerned,  no  one  can  assure 
us  that  the  rupture  of  the  conjugal  tie  would  al- 
ways remedy  sterile  unions ;  everybody  knows  that, 
if  left  to  himself,  man  is  capable  of  criminal  fraud 
in  order  to  free  himself  from  a  salutary  and  ben- 
eficent yoke  as  soon  as  he  finds  it  too  hard  to  bear. 
Besides,  for  husbands  and  wives  who  know  how 
to  submit  to  the  holy  will  of  God  their  united  life 
is  not  without  its  compensations.  They  have  not 
to  dread  those  domestic  catastrophes  which  deso- 
late the  hearth,  nor  the  terrible  blows  which  bruise 
the  hearts  of  parents  when  they  lose  by  death  the 
dear  little  ones  in  whom  they  had  placed  all  their 
affections  and  hopes ;  not  having  to  diffuse  their 


yo  Divorce. 

love  over  other  lives,  they  become  more  attached 
to  the  one  which  is  united  to  them.  They  love 
each  other  so  much  the  more  as  they  feel  them- 
selves necessary  to  one  another.  If  their  love 
needs  other  effusion  than  in  their  intimate  union, 
they  know  how  to  make  for  themselves  a  family 
of  those  who  shall  benefit  by  their  deeds  of  char- 
ity. 

I  heard  it  said  one  day  of  a  noble  and  virtuous 
couple,  to  whom  God  had  denied  the  happiness  of 
a  family  : — "  What  a  misfortune  they  have  no  chil- 
dren !  "  An  old  priest  who  knew  them  replied : 
"  They  have  no  children  !  Go  and  say  that  to  the  un- 
fortunate creatures  whom  they  help,  to  the  afflicted 
whom  they  console,  to  the  poor  little  ones  who 
owe  to  them  their  daily  bread,  clothing,  instruction, 
and  what  is  better  still,  the  principles  of  faith  and 
the  holy  love  of  God.  Do  not  pity  them,  for  they 
are  happy  :  happy  in  emulating  each  other  in  good 
works,  happy  in  relating  in  private  their  deeds  of 
charity,  happ}^  in  hearing  around  them  the  bless- 
ings of  the  unfortunate,  blessings  which  shall  fol- 
low them  to  the  place  of  their  eternal  rest.  In 
this  blessed  home  there  is  a  great  privation,  but 
no  misfortune." 

But  the  opponents  of  the  indissolubility  of  the 
marriage  tie  will  say  :  Granted,  but  still  it  is  need- 
ful that  souls  should  understand  one  another,  that 
lives  should  be  blended,  and  that  all  the  benefits 
summed  up  by  your  theologians  in  this  one  word, 
fides,  that  is  to  say,  harmony  of  disposition,  gentle 
forethought,  loving  support,  mutual  confidence, 


Divorce.  Jt 

inviolable  fidelity,  should  be  the  reward  of  an  eter- 
nal engagement.  To  count  upon  it,  is  to  illy 
understand  the  caprices,  the  weaknesses,  and,  let 
us  say  it  frankly,  the  perverse  inclinations  of 
human  nature.  If  there  are  people  happy  together, 
let  them  remain  united,  we  have  no  intention  of 
disturbing  their  happiness.  But  for  a  few  well 
assorted  couples,  how  many  unsuitable  ones  are 
there,  whose  conjugal  happiness  has  lasted  no 
longer  than  the  time  of  their  honey-moon ;  and 
this  honey-moon  has  been  succeeded  by  a  period 
of  bitter  regret. 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  innumerable 
evils  that  afflict  the  home  where  man  and  wife  are 
bound  together  forever ;  there  is  no  end  to  them. 
Here,  it  is  the  unexpected  revelation  of  repug- 
nant infirmity  or  of  dishonor  that  has  been  kept 
secret ;  there,  the  sudden  explosion  of  passions 
and  vices  hitherto  cleverly  restrained  ;  here,  faults 
which  bristle  up  at  the  least  contradiction  and 
discourage  the  most  enduring  patience ;  there, 
degrading  habits  which  cannot  be  concealed,  and 
sometimes  public  infamy  which  the  law  chastises  ; 
here,  venomous  hatred  incessantly  plotting ;  there, 
rage  which  bursts  forth  like  thunder ;  here,  in- 
sults, threats,  quarrels,  brutality,  violence ;  there, 
abominable  perfidy ;  here,  infidelity  enveloped  in 
cunning  and  falsehood ;  there,  treasonable  love 
insolently  installed  at  the  domestic  hearth.  All,  in 
short,  that  can  divide  spirits,  rend  and  make  hearts 
desperate,  and  kill  love  forever.  Is  not  this  what 
is  found  in  a  number  of  households?  And  in  these 


72  Divorce. 

prisons  of  moral  misery  and  crime  you  would 
keep  a  man  and  wife  chained  to  each  other  like 
two  convicts  bearing  the  same  burden?  Both 
guilty,  sometimes,  because  they  have  only  met 
with  deception  each  in  the  other,  and  oftener  the 
innocent  is  chained  to  the  guilty.  But  this  is  as 
absurd  as  it  is  odious.  Does  not  reason  itself  say, 
set  these  miserable  creatures  at  liberty  instead  of 
prolonging  their  torture ;  break  the  barbarous  tie 
of  indissolubility  which  condemns  them  to  a  per- 
petual privation  of  the  happiness  they  had  dreamed 
of,  and  which  they  had  a  right  to  expect  when  they 
entered  into  conjugal  society.  If  you  hold  them 
bound,  you  are  responsible  for  the  passions  which 
swell  in  the  depths  of  their  exasperated  souls,  and 
which  give  utterance  to  the  ferocious  cry  : — kill 
him,  kill  her ! 

This  is,  gentlemen,  the  hardest  blow  of  the  op- 
ponents of  the  divine  law.  I  am  not  affected  by 
it,  and  I  still  preserve  sufficient  presence  of  mind 
to  remark  to  my  opponents  that  they  abuse  the 
use  of  sombre  tints,  and  that  to  generalize  and 
exaggerate  evil  in  order  that  it  may  serve  as 
an  argument,  is  more  clever  than  manly.  Statis- 
tics do  not  portray  marriage  in  such  black  colors 
in  those  countries  where  the  indissolubility  of 
the  conjugal  tie  is  still  religiously  respected.  I 
do  not  deny  the  imperfections  of  poor  human 
nature.  When  these  imperfections  marry,  it 
is  not  astonishing  that  they  vex  one  another, 
and  that  those  who  have  united  them  experience 
some  inconveniences,  but  this  does  not  lead  reg- 


Divorce.  73 

ularly    to    catastrophe   or   even   to    unhappiness. 

Most  marriages  resemble  those  temperate  re- 
gions where  the  barometer  oscillates  between 
storm  and  settled  fine  weather.  These  oscillations 
may  be  disagreeable,  but  not  so  disagreeable  as  to 
make  us  wish  to  leave  our  happy  climates,  and  to 
take  refuge  at  the  poles,  the  tropics,  or  the  equator. 
Strained  and  violent  conditions  in  marriage  are  the 
exception,  and  it  is  not  the  law  which  is  re- 
sponsible for  them,  but  those  who  criminally  or 
imprudently  create  them.  An  author  too  fond  of 
these  paradoxical  theses,  and  who  has  made  for 
himself  a  name  in  the  question  of  divorce,  has 
lately  written  thus:  "  There  is  generally  but  little 
pity  for  the  griefs  and  misadventures  of  a  married 
man,  because  they  are  only  the  disappointments  he 
might  easily  have  foreseen.  All  misfortunes  are 
more  or  less  voluntary  ones.  One  has  desired  to 
be  more  happy  than  he  was,  and  he  is  deceived, 
and  then  another  complains  of  fate,  of  circum- 
stances, of  others,  but  never  of  himself,  and  yet  at 
the  bottom  self  is  the  only  guilty  person.  This  is 
why  with  the  help  of  natural  selfishness  we  weary 
all  to  whom  we  relate  our  misfortunes. ' 

You  will  understand  better,  gentlemen,  the  share 
of  responsibility  which  belongs  to  unhappy  married 
persons  when  I  shall  have  spoken  to  you  about 
the  profanation  of  marriage.  This  profanation  is 
the  cause  of  the  greater  part  of  the  evils  com- 
plained of,  which  render  the  yoke  of  indissolubility 

1  Letter  from  Monsieur  Alexanclre  Dumas  to  Monsieur  Adrien  Marx, 
quoted  by  DUnivcrs,  October,  1 886. 


74  Divorce. 

insupportable.  If  this  yoke  presses  with  too  heavy 
a  weight  on  guilty  shoulders,  is  it  right  to  call  it 
barbarous?  No — its  rigor  is  justice.  The  law 
turns  against  those  who  have  defied  it,  and  be- 
comes their  chastiser.  If  they  revolt  against  their 
chastiser,  if  they  yield  to  temptation  and  end  in 
crime,  the  law  of  indissolubility  is  no  more  re- 
sponsible for  this  crime  than  is  the  law  against 
theft  for  the  assassination  committed  by  a  thief 
when  he  cannot  take  a  purse  without  taking  life. 

Remark,  I  pray  you,  that  in  order  to  defy  the 
law,  it  is  not  necessary  to  enter  upon  marriage 
with  formally  criminal  intentions.  It  is  sufficient 
that,  blinded  either  by  interest  or  passion,  one 
should  forget  the  grave  duties  which  should 
be  fulfilled  with  generous  and  holy  resolutions. 
In  this  respect,  I  do  not  fear  to  say,  there  are 
but  few  to  be  found  innocent  among  unhappy 
married  couples.  And  even  if  there  are  some 
innocent  ones  among  them,  the  law  is  not  com- 
pelled to  bend  before  their  misfortune ;  for  it  is 
a  general  law,  a  law  of  great  forethought,  of 
superior  interest,  of  individual  perfection,  do- 
mestic and  social.  It  asks  from  the  innocent  the 
sacrifice  of  that  happiness  for  which  they  had 
hoped.  It  is  the  hour  for  them  to  accomplish  a 
great  act  of  self-abnegation  and  devotion,  just  as 
it  is  the  hour  for  the  soldier  to  die  on  the  battle- 
field when  the  safety  of  his  country  is  at  stake. 

Do  not  refuse  them  this  honor,  do  not  break  by 
sacrilegious  license  the  great  law  of  sacrifice  on 
which  the  glory,  and  even  the  existence,  of  society 


Divorce.  75 

depends.  The  law  of  sacrifice,  no  doubt,  is  hard 
to  nature,  and  the  innocent  may  ask  why  the 
law  immolates  them.  But  it  is  an  element  that 
must  be  remembered  in  this  critical  situation, 
it  is  the  grace  which  God  adds  to  this  law  to  pre- 
vent the  falling  away  of  human  nature.  The 
Christian  can  bear  the  yoke  of  indissolubility  ;  he  is 
not  crushed  by  it ;  for  the  more  unhappy  he  is, 
the  more  active  and  efficacious  becomes  the  grace 
of  the  Sacrament  of  Matrimony.  It  strengthens, 
sustains,  consoles  him,  and  teaches  him  the  divine 
art  of  making  his  sufferings  beneficial  even  to 
those  who  cause  him  to  suffer.  And  on  the  ruins 
of  all  the  happiness 'for  which  the  poor  heart  had 
hoped,  it  makes  him  taste  the  severe  and  noble  en- 
joyment of  an  immolation  glorious  before  God  and 
more  useful  to  society  than  bloody  sacrifices.  As 
to  those  who  will  make  no  account  of  grace,  we 
shall  see,  gentlemen,  if  it  would  be  well  to  accept 
for  them  the  remedy  proposed  to  us  by  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  divine  law. 

n. 

We  have  said  that  divorce  is  worse  than  all  the 
evils  for  which  men  desire  to  make  indissolubility 
responsible,  and  that  it  is,  therefore,  a  principle  of 
decay.  No  one  has  shown  this  truth  more  strikingly 
than  the  infallible  doctoj  who  governs  the  Church 
to-day,  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  Leo  XIII.,  in  his 
Encyclical  on  Christian  Marriage.  I  desire  only 
to  be  here  the  humble  commentator  on  his  word. 
Listen  to  it. 


76  Divorce. 

"One  can  hardly  enumerate  the  great  evils  of 
which  divorce  is  the  source.  The  conjugal  tie 
thereby  losing  its  indissolubility,  you  must  expect 
to  see  kindness  and  affection  between  husband  and 
wife  destroyed,  an  encouragement  given  to  un- 
faithfulness, the  protection  and  education  of  chil- 
dren rendered  more  difficult,  germs  of  discord 
sown  among  families,  the  dignity  of  the  wife  ig- 
nored, the  danger  of  her  seeing  herself  deserted 
after  having  served  as  an  instrument  of  the  passions 
of  man.  And  because  nothing  ruins  families  and 
destroys  the  most  powerful  kingdoms  more  than 
corruption  of  manners,  it  is  easily  to  be  seen  that 
divorce,  which  is  born  only  of  the  depraved  cus- 
toms of  nations,  is  the  most  formidable  enemy  of 
families  and  of  States,  and,  as  experience  affirms, 
it  opens  the  door  to  the  most  vicious  habits,  both 
in  private  and  in  public  life."  1 

Thus,  then,  gentlemen,  according  to  the  august 
words  you  have  just  heard,  everything  suffers 

1  At  vero  quanti  materi;im  mail  in  se  divortia  contineant,  vix  at. 
tinet  clicere.  Eorum  enim  causa  fiunt  maritalia  foedera  mutabilia ; 
extenuatur  mutua  benevolentia  ;  infidelitati  perniciosa  incitamenta  sup- 
peditnntur ;  tuition!  atque  institution!  liberomm  nocetur;  dissuendis 
societatibus  domesticis  prsebetur  occasio  ;  discoi  diarum  inter  familias 
semina  sparguntur;  minuitur  ac  deprimitur  dignitas  mulierum,  quoc 
in  periculum  veniunt  ne,  cum  libidini  virorum  inservierint,  pro  dere- 
lictis  habenntur. 

Et  quoniam  ad  perdendas  familias,  frangendasque  regnorum  opes 
nihil  tam  valet,  quam  corruptela  morum  facile  perspicitur,  prosperitati 
familiarum  ac  civitatum  maxime  inimica  esse  divortia;  quce  a  depra- 
vatis  populorum  moribus  nascuntnr  ac,  teste  rerum  usu,  ad  vitiosiores 
vitse  privatoe  et  publicre  consuetudines  aditum  januamque  patefaciunt. 
— Encyclic.  Arcanum  divina  sapiential. 


Divorce.  77 

from  divorce ;  marriage  itself,  those  who  marry, 
children,  families,  the  whole  of  society. 

Marriage  as  a  contract  that  may  be  cancelled  is 
no  longer  surrounded  by  those  salutary  precau- 
tions which  should  assure  its  peace  and  duration. 
In  fact,  it  is  no  longer  a  question  of  establishing 
something,  but  of  trying  a  venture  in  which  rein 
may  be  given  to  every  rashness  and  audacity.  Of 
what  use  are  all  the  searchings  of  delicacy  and  pru- 
dence, as  it  is  no  longer  a  question  of  settling  one's 
self  for  life?  If  the  ground  on  which  we  make 
the  engagement  is  not  solid,  we  will  leave  it  to  go 
elsewhere.  It  is  useless  to  appeal  to  that  deep 
and  tender  sentiment  which  unites  hearts  together 
and  seeks  and  promises  eternity ;  the  appetite  of 
sense  is  sufficient  for  him  who  only  wishes  to  be 
bound  for  a  time.  Marriage  is  no  longer  the 
bringing  together  of  two  lives  which  confide  in 
each  other,  complete  and  perfect  each  other  in  a 
permanent  union ;  it  is  a  terminable  society,  in 
which  mistrust  keeps  all  its  rights,  and,  as  it  has 
been  stronglv  remarked,  it  is  a  kind  of  legal  pros- 
titution to  which  man  and  woman  give  themselves 
up  to  become  debased  and  degraded. 

In  short,  whilst  indissolubility  elevates  moral 
life,  by  obliging  man  to  generous  effort,  to  correct 
his  nature  and  to  bravely  bear  the  annoyances  of 
married  life,  divorce  lowers  him,  because  it  binds 
him  to  nothing  and  gives  full  license  to  selfishness 
and  caprice.  We  must  make  sacrifices  if  we  would 
be  amiable,  gentle,  kind,  and  obliging.  But  why 
should  we  do  so  ?  We  need  not  fear  to  displease 


78  Divorce. 

those  of  whose  company  we  can  rid  ourselves. 
This  prospect  makes  all  restraint  unnecessary,  and 
leaves  defects  uncorrected.  We  clash,  hurt,  and 
lacerate  ourselves  until  we  can  only  say :  life  has 
become  unbearable,  let  us  separate. 

In  order  to  weary  the  husband  or  wife  who  is 
no  longer  desired  contradictions  and  ill  usage  will 
be  perfidiously  exaggerated.  What  becomes  of 
holy  conjugal  fidelity  agitated  by  the  constant 
desire  of  a  rupture?  The  indissolubility  of  the 
marriage  tie  protects  it  against  the  temptations 
which  allure  love  to  another  object.  To  the  man 
tormented  by  an  unlawful  passion  it  says :  "  Take 
care,  you  no  longer  belong  to  yourself."  Divorce, 
on  the  contrary,  encourages  the  faithless  heart  and 
says  to  it :  "  Go  where  love  calls  you,  you  can 
resume  your  liberty."  Since  unfaithfulness  is  one 
of  the  chief  causes  of  divorce,  it  is  made  a  regular 
trade.  Adultery  is  studied,  plotted,  and  committed, 
in  the  damnable  hope  of  securing  a  legal  rupture 
of  the  conjugal  tie. 

It  is  thus  man  and  woman,  who  might  be  so 
great  and  so  noble  under  the  law  of  indissolubility, 
are  lowered  and  degraded  under  the  law  of  di- 
vorce. Especially  woman  ;  woman,  whose  dignity 
Christianity  has  raised,  and  whom  our  fathers  as- 
sociated with  their  respect  to  their  God  and  their 
king.  Cursed,  said  they,  be  he  who  betrays  his 
God,  his  king,  or  his  wife  !  Woman  is  more  than 
man  the  victim  of  the  degradation  which  divorce 
entails.  Man  can  withdraw  from  conjugal  society 
with  all  the  advantages  of  his  strength  and  his  au- 


Divorce.  79 

thority  in  order  to  enter  upon  new  ties;  woman 
cannot  withdraw  from  it  with  all  her  dignity.  She 
leaves  behind  her  best  possessions,  her  maiden 
beauty  and  the  charms  of  her  youth,  and  only  re- 
gains with  difficulty  the  money  she  had  brought. 
Who  shall  seek  this  withered  plant,  whose  freshness 
is  gone,  and  who  is  cast  out  from  the  family  she 
has  born,  when  she  can  no  longer  hope  to  found  an- 
other? And  if  the  woman  is  still  young  and  full 
of  life,  and  has  herself  provoked,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  passion,  the  rupture  of  the  tie  that  bound 
her  to  one  love,  what  can  she  be  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world  ?  She  is  despised  as  an  ungovernable  wo- 
man, whose  shame  and  disgrace  are  increased  by 
each  new  union. 

But  the  married  couple  are  not  the  only  suffer- 
ers from  the  dishonor  and  injustice  of  their  separa- 
tion. Divroce  is  an  evil  that  exercises  a  sad  and 
lamentable  influence  on  the  family  and  on  society. 
It  outrages  the  tie  of  blood  which  unites  the  child 
to  its  parents,  and  when  it  cannot  break  what 
nature  has  made  indissoluble,  it  repudiates  the 
most  sacred  obligations.  It  generally  interrupts 
the  important  work  of  education  at  the  very  time 
when  authority  and  persuasion,  firmness  and  gen- 
tleness, should  be  closely  united  to  perfect  it.  It 
snatches  children  from  the  place  of  their  birth, 
transports  them  to  strange  places,  and  exposes 
them  to  the  dislikes,  rebuffs,  and  ill-treatment  of 
new  fathers  and  new  mothers  on  whom  they  have 
no  claim.  It  sows  the  seeds  of  contempt,  and 
hatred  in  young  hearts  where  only  respect  and 


8o  Divorce. 

love  should  germinate,  one  taking  the  part  of  a 
mother  unjustly  abandoned,  another  the  part  of  a 
betrayed  father.  It  arms  against  each  other  whole 
families  who  espouse  the  cause  of  their  blood; 
these  exaggerate  the  faults  of  the  guilty,  those 
look  for  faults  in  the  innocent.  It  provokes  com- 
plaints, recriminations,  and  reproaches,  multiplies 
discord,  quarrels,  and  lawsuits. '  Divorce  disturbs 
public  order  and  corrupts  society.  It  corrupts 
society  because  it  ruins  the  conservative  and  reg- 
ulating principle  of  all  social  energy,  the  prin- 
ciple of  authority.  In  submitting  to  the  judgment 
of  children  the  conduct  of  their  father  and  mother, 
it  lessens  the  value  of  the  primitive  power  of  the 
family,  of  which  public  power  is  only  an  imita- 
tion, a  participation,  a  general  application.  It 
forms,  little  by  little,  generations  impatient  of  every 
form  of  restraint,  because  they  have  learned  to 
despise  their  parents  and  have  had  nothing  be- 
fore their  eyes  at  the  domestic  hearth  but  the 
spectacle  of  license  falsely  labelled  liberty.  It  cor- 

1  The  happiness  of  the  State  lies  in  the  peace  and  concord  of  citizens, 
in  the  good  understanding  between  different  families.  Marriage,  by 
uniting  two  persons,  draws  together  parents,  friends;  by  rendering 
two  persons  happy,  it  makes  twenty  friends.  Divorce  comes;  it  makes 
twenty  mortal  enemies.  It  excites  the  relatives,  the  friends  of  the 
wife  against  the  husbnnd,  against  his  family'  and  his  friends.  Mar- 
riage had  mingled  their  interests,  strengthened  their  fortunes.  Di- 
vorce comes  to  divide  these  interests,  overturn  their  fortunes,  raise 
discussions,  provoke  lawsuits,  break  testaments,  and  the  courts  of 
justice  resound  only  with  complaints  against  the  husband  who  leaves 
his  wife  after  having  spent  her  fortune,  and  against  the  wife  who  leaves 
her  husband,  asking  back  what  she  has  already  wasted. — Barruel,  Let- 
ters on  Divorce  to  a  Deputy  of  the  National  Assembly,  \  788. 


Divorce.  8 1 

rupts  society  because  it  is  the  practical  triumph 
of  this  execrable  maxim  :  that  in  marriage  it  is 
permitted  to  consider  less  the  stability  of  families 
than  the  liberty  of  pleasure,  less  the  promises  of 
love  than  the  calculations  of  interest,  less  what  is 
duty  than  what  is  passion. 

Gentlemen,  the  conclusion  from  what  you  have 
just  heard  is  self-evident.  Divorce  takes  away 
from  marriage  its  guarantee  of  delicacy,  of  pru- 
dence, and  of  love.  Divorce  crushes  effort  and 
progress  in  married  life,  and  makes  woman  fall 
from  the  dignity  to  which  eighteen  centuries  of 
Christianity  have  raised  her.  Divorce  outrages  the 
tie  of  blood  and  violates  the  rights  of  children.  It 
disorganizes  and  divides  families,  disturbs  public 
order,  and  corrupts  society.  Divorce  is  a  prin- 
ciple of  decay. 

To  those  who  may  accuse  me  of  making  a  mere- 
ly hypothetical  case,  1  reply :  Take  up  history ; 
you  will  read  in  it  that  same  conclusion  written  in 
ill-omened  letters  in  the  life  and  in  the  death  of 
every  nation  that  violated  the  law  of  the  indissolu- 
bility  of  the  marriage  tie.  You  will  there  see 
women  crushed  and  degraded  by  the  tyrannical 
power  which  man  assumes  when  the  right  of  re- 
pudiation is  introduced  into  marriage.  You  will 
hear  this  piteous  cry  resounding  on  the  stage  of 
antiquity  :  "  Of  all  the  beings  who  live  and  have 
intelligence  we  women  are  the  most  miserable 
race."  l 

1  Omnium  autem  qurecumque  sunt  animata  et  mentem  habent,  nos 
mulieres  sumus  misenima  propago. — Euripides,  Medea. 


82  Divorce. 

History  will  show  you  that  the  grave  Romans 
made  wonderful  progress  as  long  as  they  put  in 
practice  this  definition  of  conjugal  society:  "A 
community  of  divine  and  human  law  :  "  Juris  di- 
vini  et  humani  communicatio.  You  will'  remark 
that  decay  is  hurried  on  by  the  fissure  of  divorce, 
which  they  had  forgotten  to  close,  and  which  the 
edicts  of  emperors  widened.  Divorce  triumphs. 
There  is  an  end  of  the  respect  with  which  the 
august  matron  was  surrounded.  This  ornament 
of  Roman  society  disappears.  The  matron  is  re- 
placed by  bad  women,  who  reckon  their  years  not 
by  the  number  of  the  consuls,  but  by  the  number 
of  their  husbands, '  who  change  households  eight 
times  in  five  years, 2  and  are  buried  after  having 
had  twenty-two  husbands. 3  The  two  sexes  rival 
each  other  in  inconstancy.  Man  only  obeys  his 
caprice  and  his  passion.  He  sends  away  his  wife, 
as  one  casts  off  a  shoe  that  hurts  the  foot. "  "  Three 
wrinkles  on  the  forehead,  teeth  whose  enamel  is 
tarnished,  sunken  eyes,  a  cold  which  remains  too 
long,  these  suffice  to  separate  him  from  the  com- 
panion of  his  life  and  from  the  mother  of  his  chil- 
dren. He  does  not  even  take  the  trouble  to  inform 
her  of  her  repudiation  ;  he  sends  her  her  bill  of  di- 

1  Numquid  jam  ulla  repuclio  erubescit,  postquam  illustres  quxdam 
ac  nobiles  foeminse,  non  consulum  numero  sed  maritoi  urn.  annos  suos 
computant. — Senec.,  De  Beneficiis,  lib.  iii.,  cap.  xvi. 

2  Si  crescit  numerus,  sic  fiunt  octo  mariti, 
Quinqueper  autumnos:  titulo  res  dignasepulcri. 

Juvenal,  Sat.  VI.,  v.  229,  230. 

3  St.  Jerome  affirms  having  been  witness  of  this  fact. 

4  So  said  Paul  Emilius,  when  sending  away  his  wife  Papyi  ia. 


Divorce.  83 

vorce.  Madam,  pack  up  your  goods  and  go. 
We  can  no  longer  tolerate  you,  you  blow  your 
nose  too  often  !  Make  haste,  the  time  is  short. 
We  are  expecting  another  wife,  who  is  not  subject 
to  cold  in  the  head. ' 

The  Roman  patricians  make  exchanges  among 
themselves ;  Cato  gives  up  his  wife  to  Hortensius ; 
"  it  is  the  custom  among  noble  people,"  *  says  a 
historian.  They  only  marry  with  the  hope  of  di- 
vorcing ;  divorce  is,  as  it  were,  a  fruit  of  mar- 
riage." ' 

The  law  is  altered  many  times  without  its  being 
able  to  be  made  anything  but  an  adulterous  law. 4 
Modesty  has  fled  with  religious  marriage,  and  the 
same  men  and  women  who  astonished  the  world 
by  their  chastitv,  now  astound  it  by  their  laxity. 6 
These  debaucheries,  fleeting  unions,  all  either  for 
pleasure  or  interest,  disgust  one  with  marriage  and 

1  Cur  desiderio  Bibulae  Sertorius  ardet  ? 
Si  verum  excutias,  facies  non  uxor  amatur. 
Tres  rugre  subeant,  et  se  cutis  arida  laxet, 
Fiant  obscuri  denies,  oculique  minores: 
Collige  sarcinulas,  dicet  libertus,  et  exi; 
Jam  gravis  es  nobis,  et  snepe  emungeris.     Exi 
Ocius,  et  propera;  sicco  venit  altera  naso. 

Juvenal,  Sat.  VI.   v.  142-148. 

*  Qure  consuetude  vulgaris  fuit.  —  Strabo,  Geograph.,  lib.  vii.  Ter- 
tullian  (Afologft.)  relates  that  Socrates  gave  up  his  wife  Xanthippe 
to  Alcibiades.  In  certain  parts  of  Greece  the  husbands  bartered  with 
one  another  their  wives.— Cf.  Potter,  Archaolog,  grt<r. 

3  Repudium  vero,  jam  et  votum  est,  ut  matnmonii  fructus.— Tertul  , 
Apologct.,  cap.  vi. 

4  The  woman  who  marries  so  m.sny  times  does  not  marry.    Quse  nu- 
bit  totie>  non  nubit;  adultera  lege  est.  —Martial,  Epig.,  vi.  7. 

s  Proudhon,    On  Justice  in  the  Revolution  and  in  thf  Church,  x.  19. 


&4  Divorce. 

exhaust  life.  The  population  decreases,  and  Rome 
has  not  enough  sturdy  soldiers  to  defend  her  against 
the  invasions  of  the  barbarians.  She  borrows 
their  forces  and  takes  them  into  her  pay.  Vain 
precaution !  Those  whom  she  employs  become 
enervated  by  contact  with  her  corruption,  and 
those  who  arrive  newly  from  the  frontiers  of  the 
empire  end  by  stifling  it. 

Barbarians  have  conquered  the  world  which  di- 
vorce has  corrupted.  A  new  world  is  formed. 
The  divine  law  of  the  indissolubility  of  marriage 
permeates  it,  fashions  it,  and  creates  the  European 
society,  which  to-day  is  so  full  of  life  and  power. 
But  beware,  gentlemen ;  Protestantism  has  re- 
opened the  terrible  fissure  of  divorce  through 
which  decay  is  precipitated.  Scarcely  half  a  cen- 
tury after  its  appearance  Germany  complains  of 
divorce  as  a  premium  of  encouragement  given  to 
conjugal  dissension. '  Never,  says  a  Protestant 
author,  has  one  seen  so  many  married  people  sep- 
arated as  in  this  extravagantcentury,  decayed  and 
approaching  the  end  of  the  world,  ....  in  which 
fools  teach  publicly  the  legitimacy  and  necessity 
of  a  plurality  of  wives."2 

1  I  consider  that  never  since  the  first  ages  of  Christianity  have  sep- 
arations and  divorces  been  so  common  as  in  our  day,  since,  after  the 
example  of  Moses,  we  have  thought  to  find  therein  a  remedy  for  licen- 
tiousness It  is  greatly  to  be  feared  that  in  permitting  divorce  we 
have  only  given  a  premium  of  encouragement  to  conjugal  dissension. 
— Schwenkfeld,  Epist.  ii.  I.  (1538.)  Cf-  Dollinger,  The  Reformation, 
Its  Development,  and  the.  Results  il  has  produced  in  Lutheran  Society, 
vol.  ii. 

*  Monner,  De  Matrimonio.  (1561.) 


Divorce.  85 

England,  converted  at  the  Reformation  by  a  lasci- 
vious king,  is  no  happier.  Divorce  there  multiplies 
domestic  crimes  to  such  a  pitch  that  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  century  a  prelate  of  the  Anglican  hier- 
archy is  obliged  to  confess  in  open  Parliament 
that,  thanks  to  the  law  of  divorce,  unfaithfulness 
is  become  a  kind  of  commerce,  carried  on  for  the 
benefit  of  discontented  husbands  and  seducers. ' 

No  doubt,  gentlemen,  in  our  Christian  society 
decay  is  less  rapid  than  in  pagan  society,  and 
people  have  some  modesty,  which  restrains  them 
in  the  descent  towards  too  great  license.  No 
thanks  to  their  dispositions  for  this  modesty  and 
tardiness,  but  rather  to  the  sacred  law  of  indissolu- 
bility  which  protects  them,  and  which  no  one  shall 
abrogate  so  long  as  there  are  in  this  world  a 
Church  and  Christian  families. 

Nevertheless,  we  are  not  safe  from  the  catastro- 
phes which  corruption  of  manners  infallibly  brings. 
Hear  the  word  of  the  Father  of  the  faithful : 
"  The  greatness  of  the  evils  engendered  by  divorce 
will  be  better  understood  when  it  is  borne  in  mind 
that  the  faculty  of  divorce  once  granted,  no  rein, 
however  strong,  can  restrain  it  within  just  limits, 
not  even  within  those  which  have  been  already 
fixed.  The  force  of  example  is  great ;  much  great- 

1  In  the  discussions  which  took  place  not  long  ago  in  the  English 
Parliament,  the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  replying  to  Lord  Mulgrave,  as- 
serted that  out  of  ten  demands  for  divorce  on  account  of  unfaithfulness, 
there  were  nine  in  which  the  seducer  had  agreed  beforehand  with  the 
husband  to  furnish  him  with  the  proofs  of  his  wife's  unfaithfulness. — 
De  Bonald,  Divorce  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  etc.,  chnp.  xi. 


86  Divorce. 

er  still  is  the  force  of  passion.  Then  it  must  come 
to  pass  that,  similar  to  a  sickness  propagated  by 
contagion,  or  to  a  mass  of  water  which  has  over- 
flown its  banks  and  spreads  everywhere,  this  rage 
of  divorce  shall  increase  from  day  to  day,  and  shall 
obtain  influence  over  the  majority  of  minds."  ' 

That  is  the  danger,  gentlemen.  If  the  children  of 
God,  weary  of  bearing  the  yoke  of  indissoluble 
union,  permit  themselves  to  be  tempted  by  the  too 
numerous  examples  of  repudiation  in  which  passion 
seeks  its  liberty;  if  human  laws  triumph  over  the 
divine  law;  if  divorce  becomes  the  custom  of  our 
society,  there  is  an  end  to  all  :  our  decay  is  certain, 
more  profound,  and  more  shameful  than  any  decay 
in  history,  because  we  shall  have  fallen  from  a  great- 
er height.  l  Divorce  gives  license  to  human  lust, 
which  is  insatiable.  After  restraint  of  liberty,  it 
desires  unbounded  liberty;  after  legal  union,  union 
at  its  own  pleasure,  and  in  this  union  polygamy, 
and  after  polygamy,  promiscuousness.  The  do- 

1  Multoque  esse  gravioria  lisec  mala  constabit;  si  consideretar, 
frenos  nullos  futures  tantos,  qui  concessam  semel  divortiorum  faculta- 
tem  valeant  intra  certos  aut  ante  provisos  limites  coercere.  Magna 
prorsus  est  vis  exemplorum,  major  cupiditatum:  hisce  incitamentis 
fieri  debet,  ut  divortiorum  libido  latius  quotidie  serpens  plurimorum 
animos  invadat,  quasi  morbus  contagione  vulgalus,  aut  agmen  aqua- 
rum,  superatis  aggeribus,  exundans.  —  Encyclic..  Arcanum  divime  sa- 


2  Ideoque  nisi  consil:a  mutentur,  perpetuo  sibi  metuere  familia  et 
societas  debebunt,  ne  miserrime  conficiantur  in  illud  rerum  omnium 
certamen  atque  discrimen,  quod  est  socialistarum  ac  communistarum 
flagitiosis  gregibus  jam  diu  nropositum.  Unde  liquet  quam  absonum 
et  absurdum  sit  publicam  salutem  a  divortiis  expectare,  qua;  potius  in 
certain  societatis  perniciem  sunt  evasura.  —  Ibid. 


Divorce.  87 

mestic  hearths  will  become  only  court-yards  and 
kennels  ;  and  in  the  race  formed  by  the  decay  in- 
augurated by  divorce  marriage  will  only  be  defined 
as  the  union  of  male  and  female  for  the  propaga- 
tion of  animals  formerly  called  the  human  species. 
We  have  not  come  to  this,  gentlemen,  thank  God, 
and  I  hope  we  never  shall.  But  to  prevent  it,  all 
true  Christians  and  sensible  men  must  unite  reso- 
lutely and  make  their  choice  between  the  principle 
of  decay  and  the  law  of  progress  and  perfection. 
In  short,  they  must  proclaim,  by  their  lives  more 
than  by  their  discourse,  that  they  will  not  separate 
what  God  has  joined  together:  Quod  Deus  con- 
junxit  Jiomo  non  separet. 


CONFERENCE  IV. 
£f  nishttion  on  JHitrriitgc. 

MY  LORD  '  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — If  the  unfortu- 
nate were  the  only  persons  to  complain  of  the  rigor 
of  the  divine  law  on  the  indissolubility  of  the  mar- 
riage tie  they  might  be  induced  to  listen  to  reason  ; 
but  the  libertines  and  the  impious  are  more  numer- 
ous.    They  are  not  content  with  complaining,  they 
appeal  to  the  secular  power  and  call  upon  the 
State  to  modify  the  divine  law  of  marriage,  which 
they  impiously  call  criminal  and  barbarous.     And 
they  do  this — as  is  well  known — in  favor  of  their 
passions,  and  not  in  the  interest  of  that  civilization 
and  humanity  about  which  they  make  such  a  noise. 
It  is  not  necessary  that  the  summons  to  the  State 
should  be  very  threatening.      The  secular  power 
has  for  a  long  time  lent  a  willing  ear  to  those  pro- 
tests which  flatter  its  dormant  ambition,  and  serve 
as  an  excuse  to  extend  its  dominion  and  power  of 
legislation.     Casuists  and  court  theologians  have 
materially  helped  the  State  to  invade  the  domain  of 
religion  and  conscience,  and  the  sophists  of  natur- 
alism have  succeeded  in  persuading  the  State  that 
it  possesses  all  rights,  and  is  the  supreme  power  on 
earth. 

1  Monseigneur  Richard,  Archbishop  of  Paris. 


Legislation  on  Marriage.  89 

There  is  nothing  easier  than  to  grant  the  demands 
of  the  impious  and  the  libertines  on  the  subject  of 
marriage.  Legislation  is  all  that  is  needed.  Mar- 
riage is  simply  "  a  contract  for  the  benefit  of  the 
State  and  the  good  of  society," 1  and  consequently 
it  is  the  business  of  the  State  to  ratify  that  contract, 
to  regulate  and  modify  its  conditions  according  to 
the  exigencies  of  the  times  and  the  conditions  of  the 
persons  who  make  the  contract.  The  State  has  the 
first  right,  the  prior  claim,  to  regulate  marriage. 
The  right  of  any  religion  or  any  Church  to  meddle 
is  secondary.  Those  who  marry  are  free  to  have 
the  union  which  "  the  State  regulates  and  effects"  * 
blessed  and  sanctified  by  a  religious  ceremony,  but 
they  must  expect  the  intervention  of  the  State. 
And  even  after  their  union  has  been  consecrated, 
they  can  always  have  recourse  to  State  interven- 
tion, and  make  the  laws  and  regulations  of  the  reli- 
gious society  to  which  they  belong  bow  before  the 
laws  and  regulations  of  the  State. 

Behold,  gentlemen,  the  pretensions  of  the  secular 
power.  It  has  thrust  itself  forward  with  so  much 
audacity  and  persistency,  it  has  been  supported  by 
so  much  sophistry,  that  it  has  ended  by  disturbing 
the  public  mind  ;  and  I  would  not  be  astonished  if 
it  had  produced  even  in  your  Christian  souls  the 
strangest  confusion  with  regard  to  legislation  on 
marriage.  Allow  me  to  enlighten  your  consciences 

1  Portalis  in  f  Expose  des  Motifs,  presented  to  the  French  "  Corps 
Legislatif "  on  the  fifth  title  of  the  civil  code  and  law  on  "  Marriage." 
4  Ibid. 


90  Legislation  on  Marriage. 

and  to  set  in  order  your  ideas  on  this  important 
and  delicate  subject.  In  opposition  to  the  preten- 
sions of  the  secular  power,  I  maintain  that  legisla- 
tion on  marriage,  as  to  its  very  essence  and  essential 
properties,  belongs  to  God  and  to  His  Church. 
This  truth  proved,  I  shall  show  you  with  what  wis- 
dom and  with  what  power  the  Church  proceeds 
in  her  legislation  on  matrimony. 


Let  us  retrace  our  steps,  gentlemen,  and  place 
ourselves  in  the  presence  of  the  principle  enunciated 
in  our  preceding  conferences ;  that  is  to  say,  that 
all  the  power,  all  the  reason  of  marriage,  lies  in  the 
tie  formed  between  man  and  woman  by  the  mutual 
giving  and  accepting  of  their  persons.  "  This  tie," 
says  St.  Thomas,  "is  marriage  itself,  and  it  is  al- 
ways God  Who  makes  it : "  Et  talis  relatio  est  semper 
a  Deo.1  I  ask  myself  how  a  human  power  can 
have  the  pretension  to  seize  and  to  regulate  this 
matter,  so  internal,  so  spiritual,  so  divine.  That  the 
State  forget  its  nature  is  possible  ;  but  this  forget- 
fulness  gives  it  no  right  to  intermeddle  in  a  sacred 
action  in  which  God  is  present  as  supreme  master 
of  the  persons  and  lives  which  He  binds  to  each 
other. 

I  know  very  well  that  people  wish  to  see  in 
marriage  only  a  simple  contract,  similar  to  the  con- 
tracts by  which  men  exchange,  transmit,  engage 
their  goods,  their  services,  the  fruits  of  their  labor 
and  their  industry :  all  things  in  which  the  secular 

1  Summ.  Theol.,  suppl.,  qusest.  48.,  a.  2.  ad.  2. 


Legislation  en  Marriage.  91 

power  may  have  a  right  of  inspection  and  regula- 
tion, in  the  interests  of  order  and  public  property  : 
but  this  is  a  radically  false  idea,  which  vitiates  all 
the  practical  consequences  which  may  be  drawn 
from  it  for  the  exercise  of  legislative  power. 

"  If  marriage  is  a  contract,"  says  Moser,  '•  it  is 
totally  different  both  in  its  nature  and  substance 
from  all  other  contracts : "  Quod  naturam  ac  stib- 
stantiam  suam  a  reliquiscontractibns  toto  ccelo  diffcrt. 
Studv  its  origin  and  what  it  is  in  itself,  and  you  are 
obliged  to  confess  that  this  truly  singular  contract 
has  been  instituted  immediately  by  God  Himself ; 
that  He  has  prescribed  its  rules,  which  no  human 
power  can  either  change  or  relax,  and  that  He  has 
taken  the  trouble  to  define  in  the  Sacred  Books  the 
conditions  which  may  render  it  valid  or  invalid. 
This  is  why  St.  Thomas  calls  it  a  spiritual  con- 
tract ;  and  from  this  it  follows  that  the  secular 
power,  which  can  annul  other  perfectly  valid  con- 
tracts, and  supplement,  under  certain  conditions, 
the  consent  of  the  contractors,  can  do  nothing  and 
shall  never  be  able  to  do  any  such  thing  when  it  is 
a  question  of  marriage.' 

1  Matrimonialis  contractus,  abstractione  etiam  facta  a  ratione  sacra- 
menti,  quoad  naturam  et  substantiam  suam  a  reliquis  contractibus  toto 

ccelo  differt Qui  matrimonii  naturam  atque  originem  attenta 

mente  consideraverit.  statim  fateri  cogetur  contractual  esse  vere  sin- 
gularem,  non  ab  hominibus  sed  a  Deo  ipso  immediate  institutum, 
circa  quern  varias  quoque  ipse  pra?scripsit  regulas  a  nulla  potestate 
humana  immutandas  aut  relaxandas  :  v.  g.  circa  ejus  unitatem,  indis- 
solubilitatem  aliasque  proprietates  ;  item  circa  personas,  qure  ad  hunc 
contractum  valide  ineundum  habiles  aut  inhabiles  non  existerent. — Gen. 
ii  28;  Levit.  xvii..  xx. ;  Deut.  xx.,  22,  26. 

Hinc  matrimonium   a  St.  Thoma  contractus  spiritualis  appellatur 


92  Legislation  on  Marriage. 

In  fact,  gentlemen,  the  secular  power  has  no 
right  over  that  which  gives  itself  in  marriage.  Our 
fortunes,  our  fields,  our  houses,  our  labors,  our 
services,  border  on  other  houses,  other  labors, 
other  services  ;  our  temporal  interests  are  combined 
with  other  interests,  and  we  conceive  that  for  pub- 
lic order,  for  the  public  good,  the  exterior  acts, 
engagements,  and  contracts,  by  which  all  things 
enter  into  relationship,  should  be  regulated  by  the 
secular  power.  But  when  man  and  woman,  in 
taking  hands,  say  to  each  other :  I  am  thine,  thou 
art  mine,  it  is  their  person,  their  life,  their  liberty, 
their  heart  which  they  mutually  give;  sacred 
possessions  bound  together  in  the  sacred  intimacy 
of  indissoluble  union  of  marriage.  By  what  right 
does  a  human  power  come  and  say  to  them,  you 
shall  not  give  yourselves,  or  you  shall  only  give 
yourselves  in  such  and  such  a  manner  ? 

My  soul,  my  body,  my  person,  is  mine ;  my  life, 
with  all  the  energy  with  which  God  has  endowed 
it,  is  mine ;  my  liberty,  which  I  bind,  is  mine ;  my 
heart,  which  I  give  to  another  heart,  is  mine.  Yes, 
mine  and  God's.  I  wish  to  submit  myself  to  His 
supreme  jurisdiction  in  disposing  of  the  posses- 
sions He  has  given  to  me ;  but  I  do  not  recognize, 
I  will  not  recognize,  any  other  jurisdiction.  My 
sacred  possessions,  I  do  not  place  them  in  circula- 

hinc  quoque  fit,  quod  publica  potestas,  qus;  alios  contractus, 

etsi  valide  initos,  quandoque  rescindere,  item  requisitum  in  contra- 
hentibus  consensum  certis  in  conditionibus  supplere  valet,  nihil  tamen 
horum  circa  contractual  matrimonialem  pracsiare  possit,  nee  unquam 
potuerit. — De  impedim.  tnatrim.,  cap.  xxiii.,  §8,  9,  10,  n. 


Legislation  on  Marriage.  93 

tion  in  the  social  life  where  the  secular  power 
makes  laws  and  governs.  I  keep  them  for  myself ; 
for,  in  giving  them  to  him  or  her  whom  I  love, 
they  are  still  mine,  because  God  has  said :  "  we 
are  two  in  one  flesh : "  ct  erunt  duo  in  carnc  nna. 
The  secular  power  has,  then,  nothing  to  look  after 
when  a  man  is  giving  himself  in  marriage ;  it  has 
nothing  to  look  after,  either,  in  what  he  does  when 
giving  himself.  What  does  he  do?  He  makes  a 
tie  which  binds  his  person,  his  life,  his  liberty,  his 
heart  to  another  person,  another  life,  another  liber- 
ty, another  heart.  Besides,  this  tie  is  an  interior 
and  spiritual  bond  which  concerns  only  his  con- 
science, and  conscience  is  a  sanctuary  on  whose 
gates  is  read :  "  Let  the  profane  keep  far  from  here ! " 
Procnl  hinc  prof  ant! — The  domicile  which  only 
shelters  the  body  is  already  a  sacred  spot  which 
the  secular  power  cannot  violate  without  drawing 
on  itself  the  indignation  and  contempt  of  honest 
people,  and  yet  it  is  desired  that  the  State  may 
enter  into  the  conscience  to  see  what  is  passing 
there,  to  fasten  or  unfasten  at  its  fancy  the  tie 
which  love  makes. 

The  marriage  tie  is  protected  against  the  inter- 
ference of  the  secular  power  by  the  facts  that  it  is 
made  by  the  joint  wills  of  the  man  and  the  woman, 
and  that,  having  made  it,  thev  cannot  sever  it.  The 
ancients,  as  we  remarked  in  our  conference  on  the 
sanctity  of  marriage,  called  religion  to  the  wed- 
ding, thus  recognizing  the  intervention  of  a  myste- 
rious and  supernatural  power  in  the  union  of  hus- 
band and  wife.  We  see  in  the  true  history  of  the 


94  Legislation  on  Marriage. 

human  family  this  supernatural  power  sealing 
with  a  solemn  benediction  the  alliance  of  the 
couple  who  were  the  first  parents  of  all  families 
and  all  societies.  Where  were  you,  the  State  and 
the  secular  power,  when  God  instituted  marriage, 
and  gave  it  the  seal  of  His  sovereign  power? 
God,  by  determining  the  essence  and  fundamental 
qualities  of  marriage,  wished  to  signify  to  you  that 
the  intimate  union  which  should  represent  the 
marriage  of  His  Word,  and  the  multiplication  of 
the  race  which  should  people  His  heaven  with  the 
elect,  were  things  that  concerned  Him,  and  with 
which  you  have  nothing  to  do.  The  family  pre- 
ceded you  ;  it  was  constituted,  united,  and  estab- 
lished by  God,  before  men  had  thought  of  de- 
livering to  you  the  commission  to  govern  in  public 
matters,  in  order  to  teach  you  that  marriage,  in  so 
far  as  it  is  a  union,  does  not  need  your  concur- 
rence ;  that  its  essence  is  impenetrable  and  invio- 
lable ;  that  no  human  power  can  prevent  the  wills 
of  man  and  woman  from  joining  with  the  divine 
power,  so  as  to  form  the  conjugal  tie ;  and  that 
this  tie  once  made,  no  human  power  can  place  it 
in  the  grasp  of  its  legislation. 

It  follows  from  this,  gentlemen,  that  marriage 
outside  the  Christian  ordinance  is  what  it  can  be, 
as  to  its  essence  and  fundamental  properties ;  this 
we  have  not  to  examine  here  ;  it  is  sufficient  for  us 
to  know  that,  subject  to  the  law  of  nature  and  to 
the  law  of  God,  it  is  independent  of  all  civil  law. 

The  incompetency  of  the  secular  power  is  still 
more  manifest,  if  we  enter  upon  the  Christian  or- 


Legislation  on  Marriage.  95 

dinance,  because  we  find  ourselves  face  to  face 
with  a  sacred  thing,  which  cannot  spring  from  any 
profane  jurisdiction.  Marriage  is  a  sacrament. 
This  sacrament  has  been  the  torment  of  jurists, 
whose  jealous  ambition  cannot  suffer  near  the 
secular  power  any  independent  power,  even  when 
it  is  God  Who  has  constituted  it.  Their  tendency 
to  secularize  religious  things,  in  the  question  which 
now  occupies  us,  has  been  encouraged  by  certain 
theologians  of  bad  counsel,  for  whom  the  contract 
and  the  sacrament  in  marriage  are  two  distinct 
things  :  the  sacrament,  a  supernatural  condition, 
added  to  the  contract  as  to  a  thing  finished  and 
perfect  of  its  kind. 

If  it  should  be  thus,  gentlemen,  the  victory 
would  not  be  gained  by  the  secular  power,  because 
we  have  proved  to  it  that  the  matrimonial  con- 
tract differs,  as  heaven  from  earth,  from  the  other 
contracts  on  which  it  legislates.  On  the  other 
side,  if  the  secular  power  avows  with  some  of  its 
jurists  that  the  contract  of  which  the  conditions 
are  made  by  human  laws  can  become  the  matter 
of  a  sacrament, '  we  reply  that  the  matter  of  a 
sacrament  is  a  sacred  thing,  of  which  a  sacred 
power  alone  can  determine  the  conditions.  But 
we  have  no  concessions  to  make  on  this  point. 
The  separability  of  the  contract  and  of  the  sacra- 
ment is  a  grave  error,  against  which  the  very  na- 

1  This  is  the  leg-il  theology  which  is  found  in  Pothier,  Conlrat 
Je  Mar.,  t.  i.,  chap.  iii. :  "  The  civil  contract  being  the  matter  of  the 
sacrament  of  marriage,  there  can  be  no  sacrament  of  marriage  when 
the  civil  contract  is  void." 


96  Legislation  on  Marriage. 

ture  of  marriage,  its  divine  institution,  and  the 
constant  doctrine  of  the  Church  protest.  I  have- 
expressed  the  fear  that  this  error  may  have  tar- 
nished the  opinion  you  yourselves  have  of  mar- 
riage. It  is  time  to  give  you  the  true  doctrine  on 
this  subject. 

It  is  impossible,  gentlemen,  to  separate  in  prac- 
tice two  things  which  spring  from  one  and  the 
same  cause  as  one  and  the  same  effect.  Now, 
such  are  in  marriage  the  contract  and  the  sacra- 
ment. Christians  who  unite  themselves  are,  as  I 
have  lately  taught  you, '  invested  by  baptism  with 
the  power  of  making  and  giving  a  sacred  thing. 
Their  mutual  tradition,  their  mutual  acceptation, 
are  joined  and  perfected  like  the  matter  and  form 
in  the  other  sacraments,  and  at  the  very  instant 
that  the  conjugal  tie  is  formed,  grace  springs 
forth,  the  sacrament  is  consummated.  There  are 
not  here  two  causes,  but  one  alone ;  not  two  acts, 
but  one  single  act ;  and  by  the  virtue  of  this  single 
act  the  contract  and  the  sacrament  subsist  ns  one 
single  and  indivisible  thing.  Even  should  you  ac- 
cept the  opinion  of  those  who  despoil  the  con- 
tractors of  their  ministerial  power  to  the  advan- 
tage of  the  priest  charged  by  the  Church  to  bless 
and  ratify  their  union,  the  things  cannot  be  di- 
vided. You  can  no  more  separate  the  contract 
from  the  sacrament  than  you  can  separate  civil 
contracts  from  the  legal  formalities  on  which  their 
validity  depends.  The  contract,  powerless  and  in- 
formal matter,  is  incapable  of  effecting  a  union  and 

1  Conference  I.,   The  Sanctity  of  Marriage,  part  ii. 


Legislation  en  Marriage.  97 

of  forming  a  tie,  if  it  is  not  laid  hold  of  by  the  sa- 
cred words  which  sanctify  it.  By  itself,  it  can  only 
be  the  incomplete  element  of  an  indivisible  action, 
and  it  is  identified  with  the  sacrament  in  this  one 
and  only  thing  which  is  called  Christian  marriage. 

This  is  what  Christ  desired  when  He  sanctified 
by  grace  what  God  had  blessed  in  the  beginning 
of  time.  The  efficacious  sign  of  this  grace  is  no 
new  rite  which  He  invents  and  adds  to  the  matri- 
monial contract ;  it  is  the  contract  itself  raised  to 
the  dignity  of  a  sacrament,  and  so  strong  in  this 
supernatural  dignity,  that  no  human  power  can 
anv  more  break  it :  Quod  Dens  conjunxit  Jiouio  non 
separet.  Has  not  the  Apostle  St.  Paul,  explaining 
this  mystery,  said :  "  Man  and  woman  shall  be 
united  by  the  exchange  of  their  consent,  and  after 
that  they  shall  be  sanctified  by  a  great  sacrament," 
but  then  :  "  A  man  shall  leave  his  father  and 
mother,  and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife,  and  they  shall 
be  two  in  one  flesh  :  Here  is  a  great  sacrament : 
Sacranicntniii  hoc  inaqnuin  cst  "  ? 

Let  all  tradition  be  explored,  there  will  not  be 
found  in  it  the  smallest  trace  of  the  distinction 
imagined  by  canonists  and  court  theologians  for 
the  use  of  jurists  who  flatter  the  ambition  of  the 
secular  power.  Depositary  of  a  teaching  which  has 
never  varied,  the  Church  has  condensed  it  in  these 
few  words,  Matrimonium  cst  sacrauicntum  :  "  Mar- 
riage is  a  sacrament."  I  have  explained  to  you, 
gentlemen,  the  sense  of  this  brief  and  significant 
affirmation.  It  means,  not  that  there  is  a  sacra- 
ment above  the  contract  or  mixed  with  the  con- 


98  Legislation  on  Marriage. 

tract,  but  that  the  sacrament  is  the  contract  itself  ; 
the  contract  invested  by  God  with  the  power  to 
produce  grace,  after  the  manner  of  all  the  sensible 
signs  which  He,  as  the  supernatural  Author,  has 
made  instruments  of  His  power. 

Besides,  the  Church  has  clearly  expressed  her- 
self by  the  mouth  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiffs,  every 
time  she  has  had  to  pronounce  on  the  doctrine  of 
separation.  "  No  Catholic,"  she  says,  "is  ignorant, 
nor  can  be  ignorant,  that  marriage  is  truly  and 
properly  one  of  the  seven  sacraments  of  the  evan- 
gelical law  instituted  by  Christ,  and  that  there 
can  be  no  marriage  between  the  faithful  without 
there  being,  immediately  and  at  the  same  mo- 
ment, a  sacrament." '  And  again  :  "  That  is  false 
doctrine,  and  worthy  of  condemnation,  which  as- 
serts that  the  sacrament  of  marriage  is  only  an 
accessory  to  the  contract  that  can  be  separated 
from  it,  and  that  it  consists  simply  of  the  nuptial 
benediction. 2 

Jurists  have  in  vain  attacked  Christian  marriage  : 
they  shall  not  snatch  from  it  the  contract,  to  make 

1  Cum  nemo  e  catholicis  ignoret,  aut  ignorare  possit,  matrimonium 
esse  vere  et  proprie  unum  ex  septem  evangelicte  legis  sacramentis  a 
Christo  Domino  institutum,  ac  propterea  inter  fideles  matrimonium 
clari  non  posse,  quin  uno  eodemque  tempore  sit  sacramentum.— Allo- 
cut.  Pii  IX.  acl  Patres  Cardinales,  die  27  Sept.  1852. 

*  Plura  de  matrimonio  falsa  asse.  untur  :  Nulla  ratione  fieri  posse 
Christum  erexisse  matrimonium  ad  dignitatem  sacramenti:  matrimonii 
sacramentum  non  esse  nisi  quid  contractui  accessorium,  ab  eoque 
separahile,  ipsnmque  sacramenlum  in  una  tantum  nuptiali  henedictione 
situm  esse. — '  ius  IX.,  In  Damnat.  et  Prohib.  operis  Joan.  Nefom. 
Nttytz,  Profess.  Tciurinensis,  cui  titiilns  :  Juris  Ecclesiastic!  Institu- 
liones.  J.  N.  Nnytz,  etc. 


Legislation  on  Marriage.  99 

it  a  creature  of  the  secular  power ;  they  shall  not 
extract  from  it  the  grace  of  the  sacrament,  to  re- 
duce it  to  the  condition  of  a  purely  civil  agreement. 
Finally,  between  the  contract  and  the  sacrament 
there  is  more  than  a  juxtaposition,  more  than  a 
soldering,  more  than  a  penetration,  there  is  iden- 
tity :  the  cause  of  the  contract  being  the  cause  of 
the  sacrament ;  the  obligation,  the  tie  formed  by 
the  contract  being  what  remains  of  the  sacrament, 
that  which  theology  calls  the  thing  itself  of  the 
sacrament :  res  ipsa  sacramenti.  ' 

And  now,  gentlemen,  listen  to  the  conclusions 
drawn  from  this  doctrine  of  inseparability  and  iden- 
tity ;  they  are  serious  and  deserve  to  be  remem- 
bered. 

Christian  marriage  is  a  sacred  thing ;  hence,  its 
essence  and  its  fundamental  properties  cannot  be 
subject  to  legislative  power  of  a  purely  human  au- 
thority :  hence,  the  efforts  of  the  secular  power  to 
prevent  the  union  of  Christians  would  be  useless: 
it  can  hinder  nothing ;  hence,  in  vain  it  says  to 
them  :  I  unite  you, — in  the  depths  of  their  con- 
sciences it  unites  nothing ;  hence,  it  would  endeav- 
or in  vain  to  break  the  sacred  tie  after  they  have 
united  themselves :  it  can  break  nothing ;  hence, 
the  sentences  it  pronounces  in  the  cases  which 
concern  the  essence  and  properties  of  marriage 
decide  nothing ;  hence,  should  it  meet  with  any  of 
the  faithful  so  forgetful  of  their  baptism  as  to  be 

1  Hujus  procul  dubio  sacramenti  res  est  ut  mas  et  foemina  connubio 
copulati,  quamdiu  vivunt,  inseparabiliter  perseverent. — S.  Aug.,  Lib. 
De  niipliis,  cap.  x.,  no.  n. 


roo  Legislation  on  Marriage. 

satisfied  with  the  prohibitions,  the  consent,  and  the 
judgments  of  the  secular  power,  whatever  consi- 
deration they  may  enjoy  among  men,  they  shall 
not  escape  the  opprobrium  of  hearing  themselves 
called  before  the  tribunal  of  God  fornicators  and 
adulterers. ' 

Do  not  exaggerate  these  conclusions.  I  am  far 
from  wishing  to  deprive  the  State  of  the  power, 
and  to  forbid  it  every  act  of  authority  with  regard 
to  marriage.  It  has  duties  to  fulfil  and  rights  to 
exercise  with  regard  to  this  venerable  institution. 

"  Those  who  govern, "  says  St.  Augustine,  "  can- 
not serve  the  Lord  except  by  forbidding  and  chastis- 
ing with  religious  severity  all  that  is  contrary  to 
His  law."*  A  public  power  which  understands 
its  high  mission  should  never  lose  sight  of  natural 
and  divine  law,  in  order  to  make  its  legislation  agree 
with  them.  All  respectable  institutions,  marriage 
among  the  rest,  can  only  gain  by  this  agreement. 

But  this  noble  use  of  the  secular  power  with 
regard  to  natural  and  divine  law  does  not  prevent 
its  asserting  its  rights  over  marriage,  and  it  cannot 
be  denied  that  it  has  them.  St.  Thomas  states 
them  with  his  customary  precision.  "  Marriage,  " 
he  says,  "  so  far  as  it  is  a  function  of  nature,  arises 
from  natural  law  ;.  in  so  far  as  it  creates  a  commu- 

1  Quamlibet  aliam  inter  Christianos  viri  et  mulieris,  przeter  sacra- 
mentum,  conjunctionem,   cujuscumque  etiam   civilis  legis  vi  factam, 
nihil  aliud  esse,  nisi  turpem  atque  exitialem  concubinatum. — Allocut. 
Pius.  IX.  sup.  cit. 

2  Quomodo  ergo,  reges  Domino  serviunt  in  timore,  nisi  ea  qure  con- 
tra jussa  Domini  fiunt,  religiosa  severitate  prnhibendo  atque  plectendo. 
— Epist.  clxxxv.  ad  Bonifac.,  c.  x.,  no.  7. 


Legislation  on  Marriage.  roi 

nity,  it  is  ruled  by  civil  law ;  in  so  far  as  it  is  a  sacred 
thing,  it  belongs  to  divine  law." '  It  is  on  the  side 
of  nature  and  of  the  sacrament  that  we  have  met 
with  the  essence,  the  intrinsic  properties,  and  the 
tie  of  marriage  ;  we  have  placed  all  these  things 
under  protection  from  the  assaults  of  the  civil  pow- 
er. But  the  conjugal  community  entering  into  civil 
society,  where  it  may  be  an  element  of  trouble  or 
of  prosperity,  it  is  impossible  to  withdraw  it  from 
the  authority  of  those  who  have  the  mission  to 
provide  for  public  order,  for  the  public  welfare ; 
and  first,  it  is  necessary  to  state  its  existence,  and 
consequently  to  receive  the  declaration  of  the  act 
which  constitutes  it.  It  is  necessary,  besides,  to 
put  in  order  the  civil  consequences  dependent  on 
this  act,  and  the  relations  which  it  creates. 

To  prevent  the  decay  and  exhaustion  of  the 
physical  strength  of  a  nation,  to  avoid  family  troub- 
les, scandals,  and  the  sad  consequences  of  capricious 
and  immoral  unions,  to  assure  the  performance  of 
the  public  service,  on  which  the  security  and  pre- 
servation of  a  people  depend,  it  may  be  necessarv 
to  create  capabilities  or  incapabilities  resulting 
from  certain  conditions  of  age,  state,  or  consent. 
Hence  questions  of  legal  authenticity,  of  dowry, 
inheritance,  succession,  guardianship,  admission  to 
public  functions,  of  civil  legitimacy  or  illegitimacy, 
which  might  be  the  subject  of  a  harassing,  vexa- 

1  Matrimonium,  in  quantum  est  in  officium  natune.  statuitur  lege 
nnturre;  in  quantum  est  in  officium  communitatis,  statuitur  lege  civili; 
in  quantum  est  sacramentum,  statuitur  jure  divino. — In  IV.  Sent. 
Dist.  34.  a.  2.  q.  I.  ad.  4;  Cf.  Lib.  iv.  Conlr-i  gentes.,  cap.  Ixxviii. 


IO2  Legislation  on  Marriage. 

tious,  unjust,  tyrannical,  and  impious  legislation, 
but  also  of  a  legislation  both  reasonable  and  salu- 
tary. Now,  to  this  reasonable  and  salutary  legis- 
lation the  Christian  should  conscientiously  submit. 
He  incurs,  at  his  own  risk  and  peril,  all  its  penalties, 
immediately  that  knowingly  and  voluntarily,  in 
contempt  of  the  law,  he  contracts  a  sacred  engage- 
ment, over  which  the  civil  law  has  no  hold  and 
which  it  cannot  invalidate. '  But  you  will  remark, 
gentlemen,  that  in  the  sphere  where  the  legislative 
authority  of  the  secular  power  is  exercised,  there 
can  only  be  question  of  the  civil  condition  and  the 
civil  consequences  of  marriage.  The  civil  power 
legislates  not  on  marriage  itself,  but  around  mar- 
riage ;  not  on  that  which  is  essential  and  principal 
in  marriage,  but  on  its  accessories.  The  essence, 
the  intrinsic  properties,  the  tie  of  marriage  trans- 
formed and  elevated  by  Christ,  are  sacred  things, 
which  can  only  spring  from  a  sacred  authority. 

1  Formerly,  in  France,  the  marriages  of  the  sons  of  a  family  con- 
tracted without  the  consent  of  their  parents  were  void  as  to  their  civil 
consequences;  that  is  to  say,  the  contractors  might  be  disinherited,  the 
parents  could  legally  compel  them  to  restore  the  gifts  which  they  had 
received  before  the  marriage.  Those  who  had  assisted  at  the  marriage 
were  punished  according  to  the  will  of  the  judge;  the  lives  of  the  notary 
and  the  witnesses  were  in  jeopardy.  "After  the  dissolution  of  these 
marriages,"  says  d'He'ricourt  (Eccles.  Laws,  part  iii.,  chap.  5i  On 
Marriage,  §  76),  "  wid  >ws  had  neither  dowry,  nor  recovery,  nor  any 
other  matrimonial  agreement;  and  the  children  who  were  born  of  this 
marriage,  or  who  had  been  legitimatized  by  their  means,  were  treated 
as  illegitimate  with  regard  to  succession.  " 

To-day,  from  a  civil  point  of  view,  are  considered  illegitimate  the 
unions  of  children  made  without  the  consent  of  their  parents,  of  mili- 
tary men  without  the  consent  of  their  chiefs,  and  the  unions  of  those 
who  have  not  yet  attained  the  age  prescribed  by  law. 


Legislation  on  Marriage.  103 

This  authority,  you  have  named  it,  gentlemen : 
it  is  the  Church. '  The  secular  power  has  desired 
to  dispossess  it ;  therefore  it  has  imagined  the  doc- 
trine of  the  separability  of  the  contract  and  the 
sacrament.  This  ingenious  discovery  has  made  it 
bold  ;  when  rights  are  taken  away,  there  is  no 
hesitation  about  taking  away  too  much.  Having 
taken  possession  of  the  contract,  the  civil  power 
desires  to  be  its  absolute  master.  Its  hired  theo- 
logians have  not  feared  to  define  the  strange  dogma 
of  the  dependence  of  the  Church  on  the  consider- 
ation of  the  State  in  all  matrimonial  matters.  This 
scaffolding  of  ambitious  affirmations  crumbles 
under  the  blows  of  the  exposition  you  have  just 
heard.  We  remain  in  the  presence  of  a  sacred 
thing,  consequently  in  presence  of  the  undivided 
power  of  the  Church.  It  is  Jesus  Christ  Himself 
Who  has  invested  her  with  this  power,  for  He  has 
not  in  any  respect  separated  marriage  from  the 
other  sacraments  of  which  He  confided  the  dispen- 
sation to  her.  All  divine  mysteries  must  pass 
through  her  hands ;  she  therein  represents  Christ 
Himself :  Sic  nos  exist imct  homo  ut  ministros  Christi, 
ei  dispcnsatoj  es  niysteriorum  Dei. a 

If  the  ministry  of  the  Church  is  not  immediate 

1  A  conjugal!  foedere  sacramentum  separi  nunquam  posse,  et  omnino 
spectare  ad   Ecclesice  potestatem  ea  omnia  decernere,  qua?  ad  idem 
matrimonium  quovis   modo   possunt  pertinere.  — Allocut.,   Pius    IX. 
supra  cit. 

Cum  matrimonium  sit  sua  vi,  sua  natura,  sua  sponte  sacrum,  con. 
sentaneum  est,  ut  regatur  ac  temperetur,  non  principum  imperio,  sed 
(Hvina  auctoritate  Ecclesine,  quoe  rerum  sacrarum  sola  habet  magis- 
terium. — Leo  XIII.  Encyclic.  Arcanum  divina  sapiftitue. 

*  I.  Cor.  iv.  I. 


IO4  Legislation  on  Marriage. 

in  marriage,  as  in  the  other  sacraments,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  the  contractors  who  act  belong  to  her  by 
baptism,  and  are  subject  to  her  sovereign  authority. 
In  keeping  them,  she  keeps  the  entire  sacrament ; 
nothing  can  be  done  with  it  except  according  to 
her  law.  She  binds,  she  looses,  the  contracting 
wills.  Their  consent  cannot  unite  them  if  she 
prevents  it ;  there  are  no  further  obstacles  the 
moment  she  has  .said  :  speak.  Where  the  tie  is 
doubtful,  she  alone  has  the  right  to  pronounce  on 
its  validity.  If  she  decides  that  all  is  done  well, 
they  must  remain  united.  They  are  free,  if  she 
says :  it  is  ill  done.  Her  penetrating  authority 
can  go  to  the  very  root  of  the  conjugal  union,  heal 
the  canonical  vice  of  consent,  and  give  it  back  all 
its  efficacy.  The  sacred  tie  which  cannot  be 
broken  either  by  the  retractation  of  the  act  which 
made  it  or  by  the  sentence  of  human  justice,  can 
be  broken  by  her  for  the  greater  glory  of  God,  or 
for  the  well-being  of  Christian  society,  when  it  has 
not  yet  been  definitely  established  by  the  carnal 
union  of  husband  and  wife.  And  when  she  can 
do  nothing  with  the  very  substance  of  the  obliga- 
tion contracted,  she  finds  means  to  alleviate  its 
rigor  for  the  unfortunate,  in  suspending,  by  separa- 
tion, the  exercise  of  rights  and  the  fulfilment  of 
duties  which  have  become  an  intolerable  burden 
to  them.  You  see,  gentlemen,  that,  unlike  human 
legislation,  which  moves  around  marriage,  the  leg- 
islation of  the  Church  penetrates  to  its  very  essence, 
because  marriage  is  a  sacred  thing,  and  the  Church 
alone  possesses  a  sacred  power  in  the  world. 


Legislation  on  Marriage.  105 

This  power  the  Church  has  exercised  with 
supreme  independence  in  those  Christian  societies 
which  were  formed  under  the  jealous  eye  of  pagan 
powers ;  she  has  maintained  it  in  spite  of  all  contra- 
dictions ;  she  has  defined  it  in  those  solemn  articles 
of  which  I  have  not  the  time  to  explain  to  you  the 
purport.1  Spare  me  from  quotations.  I  think  I 

1  We  add  the  following  to  the  two  definitions  we  have  given  above 
of  the  general  power  of  the  Church  with  regard  to  marriage: 

First,  the  Canons  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  Sess.  xxiv. 

Can.  III.  Si  quis  dixerit  eos  tantum  consanguinitatis  et  affmilatis 
gradus,  qui  Levitico  exprimuntur,  posse  impedire  matrimonium  con- 
trahendum  ct  derimere  contiac  urn  ;  nee  posse  Ecclesiam  in  nonnullis 
illorum  dispensare,  aut  consiituere  ut  plures  impediant  et  dirimant ; 
anathema  sit. 

Can.  IV.  Si  quis  dixerit  Ecclesiam  non  potuisse  constituere  impedi- 
menta matrimoniuin  cliriinentia,  vel  in  iis  constituendis  errasse;  ana- 
thema sit. 

Can.  VI.  Si  quis  dixerit  matrimonium  ratum  non  consummating, 
per  solemnem  religionis  professionem  alterius  conjugum  non  derimi; 
anathema  sit. 

Can.  VIII.  Si  quis  dixerit  Ecclesiam  errare,  cum  ob  multas  causas 
separationem  inter  conjuges,  quoad  thorum  seu  quoad  cohabitationem, 
ad  certum  incertumque  tempus  fieri  posse  decernit  ;  anathema  sit. 

Can.  XII.  Si  quis  dixerit  causas  matrimoniales  non  spectaread  judi- 
ces  ecclesiasticos  ;  anathema  sit. 

Secondly,  the  contradictions  of  the  propositions  condemned  by  the 
Syllabus. 

Prop.  LXVIII.  Ecclesia  non  habet  potestatem  impedimenta  matri- 
monium dirimentia  inducere,  sed  ea  potestas  civili  auctoritali  competit, 
a  qua  impedimenta  existentia  tollenda  sunt  — Lilt,  apost.  Mulliplices 
inter,  10  Junii  1851.) 

Prop.  LXIX.  Ecclesia  sequioribus  sieculis  dirimentia  impedimenta 
inducere  ccepit,  non  jure  proprio,  sed  illo  jure  usa,  quod  a  civili  po- 
testate  mutuata  erat. — Litt.  apost.  Ad  apostolic^,  22  August,  1851. 

Prop.  LXX.  Tridentini  Canones  qui  anathematis  censuram  illis 
inferunt  qui  facultatem  impedimenta  dirimentia  inducendi  Ecclesise 


106  Legislation  on  Marriage. 

have  sufficiently  proved  that  the  intimate  legisla- 
tion on  marriage  belongs  to  the  Church.  I  hasten 
to  tell  you  with  what  wisdom  and  power  the 
Church  proceeds  in  her  legislation  on  matrimony. 

II. 

You  do  not  expect  me,  gentlemen,  to  enter  into 
the  details  of  the  Church's  legislation  on  matri- 
mony, nor  that  I  should  draw  from  it  practical 
applications.  This  study  belongs  to  canon  law  and 
to  casuistry.  It  is  long,  dry,  complicated,  neces- 
sary for  those  who  should  govern  consciences ;  you 
do  not  need  it.  It  is  sufficient,  in  order  to  increase 
in  your  Christian  souls  respect  for  the  sacred  power 
with  which  the  Church  is  invested,  to  show  you 
that,  after  the  manner  of  those  legislators  truly 
worthy  of  the  name,  she  knows  how  to  unite  wis- 
dom and  power  in  the  preventive,  merciful,  and 
punitive  measures  which  she  takes  to  protect  and 
strengthen  the  venerable  institution  of  marriage. 

You  may  settle  your  life  in  it,  but  you  cannot 
enter  upon  it  as  you  will.  There  are  on  the  road 
a  succession  of  barriers  which  cannot  be  passed 

negare  audeant,  vel  non  sunt  dogmatic!,  vel  de  hac  mutuata  potestate 
intelligendi  sunL — Ibid. 

Prop.  LXXI.  Tridenti  forma  sub  infirmitatis  pcena  non  obligat,  ubi 
lex  civilis  aliam  formam  prsestituat,  et  velit  hac  nova  forma  interveni- 
ente  matrimonium  valere. — Ibid. 

Prop.  LXXIV.  Causae  mntrimoniales  et  sponsalia  suapte  natura  ad 
forum  civile  pertinent. — Ibid.,  Alice.  Acfrbissimttm,  27  Sept.  1852. 

As  to  the  power  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  to  dissolve  a  marriage 
ratified  but  not  consummated,  there  is  no  other  definition  but  the 
practice  of  the  Holy  See.  We  refer  to  the  Index  on  this  question. 


Legislation  on  Marriage.  107 

without  examination  and  permission.  They  are 
called  impediments. 

Superficial  or  evil-minded  persons  only  see  in 
these  impediments  a  kind  of  toll  by  which  the 
Church  makes  profit  for  the  increase  of  her  financ- 
es. The  formidable  multiplication  of  fiscal  laws 
from  which  they  suffer  in  civil  life  persuades  them, 
no  doubt,  that  one  can  scarcely  have  any  power, 
even  spiritual,  without  seeking  to  make  money  by 
it.  Foolish  prejudice,  against  which  it  is  useless 
to  argue  ;  you  are  too  reasonable  not  to  estimate  it 
rightly.  Your  serious  minds  seek  in  the  measures 
taken  by  the  most  respected  of  all  authorities  the 
highest  motives  which  can  induce  her  to  use  her 
legislative  power ;  and  in  company  with  all  grave 
thinkers  you  believe  that  legislation  on  a  sacred 
thing  cannot  be  lightly  made,  nor  from  base  motives, 
and  that  the  impediments  to  marriage  must  have 
their  philosophy. 

You  are  right,  gentlemen,  the  Church  has  multi- 
plied the  preventive  measures  of  her  matrimoni- 
al legislation  only  in  the  interests  of  those  who 
marry,  of  the  family,  and  of  society.  To  the  im- 
pediments imposed  by  the  strength  of  natural  law, 
she  had  added  those  which  she  believed  to  be 
necessary  to  assure  the  peace  and  holiness  of  the  con- 
jugal union,  together  with  its  liberty  and  its  end.1 

!  To  help  the  memory,   rather  than  to  satisfy  literary  taste,   the 
fifteen  diriment  impediments  are  enumerated  in  the  following  lines: 
"  Error,  conditio,  votum.  cognatio,  crimen, 
Cultus  disparitas,  vis,  ordo,  ligamen,  honestas, 
Amens,  amnis,  si  clandestinus  et  impos, 
Si  mulier  sit  rapta,  loco  nee  reddita  tuto." 


io8  Legislation  on  Marriage. 

Marriage  being  of  all  the  engagements  which 
man  contracts  with  his  fellow-creature  the  most 
elevated,  most  delicate,  most  intimate,  most  irrevo- 
cable, nature  desires  that  in  it  the  will  shall  be  per- 
fectly free.  Insanity  or  imbecility,  which  envelop 
it  in  darkness  ;  error,  which  leads  astray  its  choice  ; 
violence  and  rape,  which  falsify  and  constrain  its 
resolutions,  are  so  many  obstacles  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  overleap  before  arriving  at  the  union 
of  consent  and  at  the  formation  of  the  conjugal  tie. 
The  Church  does  not  create  them,  she  is  satis- 
fied to  point  them  out.  But  her  wisdom,  profound- 
ly respecting  liberty,  goes  much  further ;  she 
eliminates  from  marriage  the  servile  condition 
which  places  a  man  in  the  power  of  another  man. 
It  does  not  satisfy  her  that  those  who  marry  should 
give  themselves  to  each  other,  they  must  possess 
each  other  freely,  and  no  stranger  will  can  tyranni- 
cally oppose  itself  to  the  exercise  of  their  respective 
rights.  It  is  thanks  to  this  wise  character  of  its 
law  that  the  Church  has  obtained  from  Christian 
masters  the  greater  part  of  the  emancipations  which 
have  destroyed  slavery  little  by  little,  and  have 
created  our  free  society,  in  which  the  impediment 
of  condition  no  longer  exists. 

The  liberty  of  marriage  being  assured,  it  must 
be  able  to  attain  its  humanitarian  and  social  design  : 
the  propagation  of  the  human  species  and  the 
fusion  of  families  into  that  great  society  which  is 
called  a  people.  For  this  reason,  after  having  for- 
bidden marriage  to  the  unfortunate  whose  nature 
is  incomplete,  or  whose  energies  lie  dormant,  the 


Legislation  on  Marriage.  109 

Church  further  debars  those  from  marrying  who 
are  too  nearly  related  to  each  other.  She  says,  as 
well  as  physiologists,  that  two  bloods  too  nearly 
related  in  their  source  are  with  difficulty  prolific ; 
that  their  similarity  predisposes  them  to  pathologic 
inheritance,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  sad  transmission 
of  the  infirmities  and  maladies  which  afflict  a  family  ; 
that,  like  two  poles  of  electricity,  two  bloods  com- 
ing from  afar  combine  more  easily,  and  cause  the 
spark  of  life  to  spring  forth  more  vigorously  ;  and, 
definitely,  that  man  should  not  have  less  solicitude 
for  the  health  and  beauty  of  his  noble  race  than 
he  has  for  the  health  and  beauty  of  the  animal  races 
which  he  makes  use  of  for  his  nourishment  and 
service.  She  forbids,  then,  not  only  those  unions 
which  are  repugnant  to  nature,  but  she  extends  her 
prohibitions  to  those  inferior  degrees  of  relation- 
ship where  she  perceives  a  danger,  should  it  be 
only  that  of  the  great  concentration  of  families 
among  themselves,  of  creating  in  society  a  kind  of 
caste,  in  which  the  affections  remain  entrenched, 
or  where  possessions  are  amassed  while  life  is  im- 
poverished. The  foreseeing  wisdom  of  the  Church, 
according  to  the  thought  so  beautifully  expressed 
by  St.  Thomas,  desires  that  marriage,  pursuing  its 
design  to  the  end,  may  attain  these  two  great  social 
blessings:  the  confederation  of  men  and  the  multi- 
plication of  friendships.  It  is  with  this  design  that 
she  extends  her  prohibitions  of  consanguinity  to 
affinity,  in  order  that  social  union  may  result  from 
the  double  diffusion  of  life  and  love. 

To  these  guarantees  from  without  are  added 


1 1  o  Legislation  on  Marriage. 

the  guarantees  of  security  and  domestic  peace, 
which  permit  husband  and  wife  to  live  together 
without  fear  and  trouble.  The  Church  does  not 
wish  a  man  or  woman  to  profit  by  a  crime  in 
order  to  be  united  to  the  accomplice  of  their  pas- 
sion. By  shutting  the  doors  of  conjugal  society 
to  homicide  and  adultery,  she  takes  from  them  all 
hope  of  obtaining  their  vile  designs,  and  stifles  in 
the  germ  many  bold  undertakings  which  would 
compromise  the  security  of  the  domestic  hearth. 
But  the  Church's  greatest  anxiety  is  for  the  peace 
of  souls.  Love,  so  ardent  in  early  days,  grows  luke- 
warm with  time,  and  disparity  of  worship,  forgotten 
for  a  moment,  may,  with  its  desires,  its  exactions, 
its  susceptibilities,  become  a  source  of  interminable 
discussion,  bitter  reproaches,  and  perhaps  of  incur- 
able hatred.  The  Christian  hearth  is  a  sanctuary 
where  before  all  else  religious  peace  should  reign  ; 
and  for  that  there  must  be  but  one  faith,  one  God, 
one  altar,  one  worship,  as  there  is  but  one  Baptism. 
Do  not  forget,  gentlemen,  that  marriage  is  holy, 
and  already  the  Church  watches  over  its  holiness, 
by  proscribing  a  disparity  of  worship.  But  still 
more  severe  and  more  pure  are  her  exactions  with 
regard  to  this  characteristic  property  of  Christian 
marriage.  It  ceases  to  be  holy  and  becomes  sacri- 
lege if  it  is  made  to  the  detriment  of  a  right 
acquired  by  God.  Also  the  Church  considers 
that  the  sacerdotal  character  and  solemn  vows  of 
religion  are  on  the  part  of  man  gifts,  on  the  part  of 
God  an  entering  into  possession  which  does  not 
permit  other  engagements. 


Legislation  on  Marriage.  \  1 1 

More  than  that,  gentlemen;  the  Church  does  not 
suffer  the  rights  acquired  by  man  to  be  violated. 
Not  only  does  she  arrest  at  the  doors  of  the  sanc- 
tuary those  who  would  marry  a  second  time  be- 
fore the  tie  which  binds  them  be  broken  by  death, 
but  also  those  who,  having  given  their  word  in 
solemn  espousals,  dare  to  brave  public  honesty  by 
a  kind  of  perjury.  To  such  a  degree  is  the 
Church  jealous  for  the  sanctity  of  marriage,  that 
she  does  not  permit  that  the  union  of  her  children 
should  be  suspected  of  any  infamy,  nor  that  se- 
crecy should  be  abused  to  beguile  their  good  faith 
and  to  extract  from  them  a  consent  for  which  they 
would  blush.  Therefore  she  compels  them,  under 
pain  of  only  producing  powerless  consent,  to  come 
out  from  clandestine  shades,  and  in  broad  daylight 
to  pronounce  before  her  their  oaths,  and  to  receive 
her  benediction. 

Gentlemen,  be  the  Church  accused  as  much  as 
may  be  of  annoying  those  who  marry  in  spite  of 
her  impediments,  it  is  not  less  true,  as  you  have 
just  seen,  that  all  her  legislation  is  made  in  the  in- 
terests of  liberty,  of  the  multiplication  and  health 
of  human  generations,  of  social  unity,  of  the  secur- 
ity and  peace  of  the  domestic  hearth,  of  purity  of 
faith,  of  the  laws  of  God,  of  the  laws  of  man, 
of  the  honor  and  good  reputation  of  marriage  it- 
self. If  it  pleases  the  Church  to  moderate  as  much 
as  she  can  the  rigor  of  her  legislation,  she  has 
certainly  the  right  to  exact  some  compensation. 
It  is  more  than  thanklessness  and  ill  humor :  it  is 
folly,  ingratitude,  injustice,  to  profit  by  the  dispen- 


1 1 2  Legislation  on  Marriage. 

sations  which  her  merciful  kindness  grants  to  our 
weakness  and  our  needs,  while  we  attack  her  wis- 
dom. 

The  wisdom  of  the  Church,  however,  with  all 
her  preventive  measures,  would  not  have  saved 
marriage  from  the  attempts  made  by  passion 
during  eighteen  centuries  to  deprave  it,  if  she  had 
not  brought  all  her  strength  to  the  aid  of  her  legis- 
lation. You  have  heard  her  protest  with  a  loud 
voice  against  the  unholy  laws  Sy  which  the  em- 
perors endeavored  to  prolong  the  immoral  liberties 
of  paganism,  and  you  have  heard  her  proclaim  that 
the  decrees  of  Caesar  are  struck  powerless  by  the 
decrees  of  God.  Her  courageous  resistance  has 
made  yield  around  her  those  codes  and  customs 
contrary  to  her  sacred  laws,  and  she  has  arrived 
at  combining  in  her  law  the  matrimonial  law  of 
those  nations  who  receive  her  Baptism. 

But  after  having  triumphed  over  the  opposition 
of  laws,  it  was  necessary  to  combat  the  licentious- 
ness of  the  great.  For  them,  relationship  and  en- 
gagements made  counted  for  nothing,  directly 
there  was  a  question  of  serving  some  interest  or 
gratifying  some  passion.  Publicly  wicked,  they 
would  quickly  have  brought  the  Christian  world 
back  to  the  licentious  manners  which  before  them 
dishonored  marriage,  if  the  Church  had  not  cried 
out  to  them,  as  John  the  Baptist  did  to  Herod : 
Non  licet,  "  It  is  not  lawful,"  and  if  she  had  not 
crushed  with  the  thunder  of  her  censures  their 
proud  pretension  to  place  themselves  above  laws. 

Only  in  our  own  land,    how  many  kings  and 


Legislation  en  Marriage.  1 1 3 

princes  the  Church  has  had  to  solemnly  warn  and 
strike  without  pity,  when  they  revolted  against 
her  maternal  admonitions.  Theodbert,  the  grand- 
son of  Clovis,  Clotaire  I.,  Caribert,  Dagobert, 
Childeric  d'Austrasie,  Pepin  d'Heristal,  Charle- 
magne himself,  Lothaire,  Robert  the  Pious,  Philip 
I.,  Louis  VII.,  Philip  Augustus,  and  many  princes 
and  lords  of  less  power.  Not  only  among  us,  but 
all  around  us,  the  Church  has  had  to  make  war 
with  wickedness  and  divorce  among  crowned 
heads. 

To  excommunicate  the  guilty,  brave  their  anger, 
place  their  kingdoms  under  interdict,  shut  the 
temples  and  cemeteries,  absolve  the  people  from 
their  oath  of  allegiance,  provoke  their  murmurs 
and  cause  their  tears  to  flow,  no  cost  was  too  great 
to  obtain  the  victory  over  the  scandal.  In  these 
struggles  between  the  divine  law  and  human  pas- 
sions a  good  number  of  bishops  have  sacrificed 
their  lives,  and  the  Church  herself  has  preferred 
to  have  her  bosom  torn  and  her  members  cut  off, 
rather  than  compromise  by  concession  the  holy 
cause  of  marriage.  Railers  have  laughed  at  her 
excommunications,  and  the  wise  of  the  world  have 
exclaimed  at  the  scandal.  Strange  scandals  are 
these  repeated  acts  of  spiritual  vigor,  which  chas- 
tise crime  and  stifle  it  before  it  becomes  conta- 
gious. 

Without  the  courage  and  power  which  the 
Church  has  displayed  in  maintaining  her  legislation 
on  marriage,  the  licentiousness  of  monarchs  would 
have  been  imitated  by  their  courts;  from  the  court 


1 14  Legislation  on  Marriage. 

it  would  have  passed  to  the  people,  and  the  public 
manners  of  Christian  nations,  like  those  of  an- 
tiquity, would  have  offered  to-day  to  our  eyes 
only  the  repugnant  spectacle  of  a  universal  putre- 
faction. For,  be  well  persuaded,  gentlemen,  the 
holy  laws  of  marriage  are  not  violated  with  im- 
punity: God  is  always  ready  to  avenge  them.  We 
have  seen  sovereign  races  become  extinct  in  the 
offspring  whose  birth  the  people  had  greeted  with 
enthusiasm,  and  hope  deceived  has  sought  for  the 
cause  of  these  providential  extinctions.  There 
was  perhaps  no  other  cause  but  that  of  unions 
contracted  in  contempt  of  the  laws  of  God  and  of 
the  Church.  Nations  will  become  extinct  like 
families  in  the  day  when  they  no  longer  respect 
these  laws,  in  the  day  when  the  Church  shall  have 
no  power  to  make  their  corrupt  heart  understand 
this  holy  precept  of  the  Apostle,  in  which  is 
summed  up  all  her  legislation  on  matrimony : 
"  Marriage  honorable  in  all,  and  the  bed  undefiled  :  " 
Honorabilc  connubium  in  omnibus,  et  thorns  immacu- 
latus.  ' 

1  I.  Heb.  xiii.  4. 


CONFERENCE  V. 

fcg> 
be  firofimation  0f 
*K> 

MY  LORD'  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — The  conclusions 
of  our  last  conference  completely  overthrow  the 
calculations  of  those  who  count  on  the  civil  power 
to  reform  the  indissolubility  of  the  marriage  tie. 
The  civil  power  can  do  nothing,  for  the  question 
is  not  about  a  civil  act  but  about  an  essential  prop- 
erty of  marriage.  The  Church  is  invested  with 
divine  authority,  and  she  alone  has  the  right  to 
legislate  on  marriage.  The  Church,  as  the  supreme 
teacher,  is  the  only  power  that  can  pronounce 
practically  on  the  value  of  the  conjugal  tie.  If  the 
tie  is  made  as  it  should  be,  she  has  no  authority, 
no  commission  from  God  to  undo  it,  and  those  who 
complain  of  rigor  must  be  satisfied  with  the  answer 
contained  in  these  words  of  the  Saviour :  Quod 
Dfiis  conjunxit  lioino  11011  separct :  "  What  God  hath 
joined  together  let  no  man  put  asunder." 

Gentlemen  :  I  have  not  forgotten  the  bitter  plead- 
ings with  which  the  adversaries  of  the  divine  law 
on  the  indissolubility  of  the  marriage  tie  have 
wearied  us.  I  repeat  their  complaints  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  proving  to  you  that  the  greater 
number  suffer  from  the  law  because  they  have 

1  Monseigneur  Richard,  Archbishop  of  Paris. 
115 


1 1 6  The  Profanation  of  Marriage. 

outraged  it,  and  because  they  have  made  it  in  their 
own  cases  the  chastisement  of  a  profanation. 

Marriage,  according  to  its  primitive  destination, 
should  be  an  honorable  and  happy  union :  but 
into  it,  as  into  everything,  sin  has  entered.  St. 
Paul,  who  calls  it  "  a  great  mystery,"  does  not  fail 
to  tell  us  that  we  must  expect  to  meet  with  tribula- 
tions therein :  Tribulationem  habebunt. '  The  imper- 
fections and  vices  of  our  fallen  nature  can  render 
these  tribulations  so  numerous  and  so  strong  that 
it  would  be  folly  to  confront  them  under  an  indis- 
soluble yoke,  if  God  had  not  prepared  compensa- 
tions for  those  who  marry,  in  the  three  great 
blessings  which  theology  calls:  Proles,  fides,  sacra- 
mentum. 

"  Proles"  that  is  to  say,  the  honor  and  happiness 
of  living  again  in  one's  children,  enriching  the 
world  with  new  beings,  and  of  preparing  an  elect 
race  for  heaven. 

" Fides"  that  is  to  say,  the  sweetness,  the  conso- 
lations of  a  faithful  intimacy  into  which  one  retires 
to  make  life's  joys  more  real,  or  to  withstand  the 
blows  of  evil  fortune. 

"  Sacr amentum"  that  is  to  say,  the  grace  of  the 
sacrament  which  strengthens  the  conjugal  tie, 
heals  the  infirmities,  or  repairs  the  follies  of 
nature. 

"  There  must  be  nothing  less  than  these  three 
great  blessings,"  says  St.  Thomas,  "  in  order  to  ex- 
cuse marriage,  and  to  make  it  honorable :  "  Hac 

1   I.  Cor.  vii.  28. 


The  Profanation  of  Marriage.  1 1 7 

sunt  bona  qucz  matrimonium  excusant  et  honestum 
reddunt.1 

Now,  gentlemen,  who  are  they  who  with  candor, 
sincerity,  and  a  spirit  of  faith  seek  the  three  great 
blessings  of  marriage  ?  They  are  few.  And  when 
they  have  been  deceived,  when  they  suffer,  they 
do  not  complain,  believe  me,  because  they  cannot 
begin  again  their  matrimonial  experience  by  a  new 
deception.  As  to  those  who  ask  for  themselves  or 
others  this  experience,  I  maintain  that  they  do 
not  deserve  that  the  law  should  bend  before  their 
misfortune  ;  for  they  suffer  by  their  own  fault,  be- 
cause they  have  all  some  dishonesty  to  reproach 
themselves  with  on  account  of  one  of  the  blessings 
of  marriage,  perhaps  with  regard  to  them  all  at 
the  same  time. 

We  shall  make  a  study  of  modern  marriages. 
It  will  be  more  useful  and  more  convincing  than 
all  arguments,  as  a  reply  to  those  who  meddle 
with  the  reformation  of  marriage,  instead  of  con- 
demning those  who  profane  it. 

I. 

The  fecundity  of  living  beings  is,  in  nature,  the 
accomplishment  of  a  precept  of  God,  and  it  is  the 
fruit  of  His  benediction.  The  Lord  said,  "  Increase 
and  multiply:"  Crescite,  multiplica mini;  and  life 
spread  through  the  whole  universe,  of  which  it  is 
the  ornament  and  the  glory.  Wherever  it  is 
absent,  nature  is  cheerless  and  desolate  ;  every- 

1  Sitmm.Theol.,  suppl.  qurest.  49.  a.  I. 


1 1 8  The  Profanation  of  Marriage. 

where  that  it  abounds,  we  recognize  and  bless  the 
paternal  hand  of  God. 

But  in  the  little  world  of  the  human  family, 
more  than  in  the  great  world  of  nature,  fecundity 
is  a  blessing.  God  has  promised  it  to  those 
whom  He  loves.  He  showed  to  His  servant  Abra- 
ham the  stars  of  the  firmament,  which  the  children 
of  his  race  were  to  equal  in  number.1  He  has  in- 
spired His  prophets  to  sing  the  happiness  of  the 
man  who  fears  the  Lord :  All  prospers  in  his 
industrious  hands.  His  wife  beside  him  is  like 
the  fertile  vine  on  the  sides  of  his  house,  and  his 
numerous  children  surround  his  table,  joyful  and 
full  of  hope,  like  the  young  shoots  of  the  olive 
tree.  He  shall  see  his  childrens'  children :  it  is 
thus  that  God  gives  His  blessing :  Ecce  sic  bene- 
dicitur  homo?  Yes,  it  is  thus  that  God  blesses ; 
and  when  He  wishes  to  curse,  He  denies  posterity 
or  destroys  it.  The  posterity  of  the  sinner  be  cut 
off,  He  says ;  in  one  generation  may  his  name 
be  blotted  out :  Fiant  nati  cjus  in  interitmn  :  in 
generatione  una  dcleatur  nonicn  y'us.3 

How  beautiful  is  the  smile  of  childhood  !  It  is 
like  a  ray  of  sunshine  at  the  hearth,  and  the  more 
smiles  there  are,  the  more  resplendent  is  the  hearth. 
Multiply,  charming  beings,  fill  the  house  where 

1  Eduxitque  eum  foras,  et  ait  illi :  Suspice  ccelum,  et  numera  Stellas, 
si  potcs.     Et  clixit  ei :   Sic  erit  semen  tuum. — Gen.  xv.  5. 

2  Labores  manuum  tuarum  quia  minclucabis,  beatus  es  et  bene  tibi 
erit.      Uxor  tua  sicut  vitis  abundnns,  in  lateribus  domus  tu?e.     Filii 
tui,  sicut  novelke  olivarum,  in  circuitu  mensse  tuce.     Et  videas  filios 
filiorum  tuorum. — Psalm  cxxvii.  2-6. 

8  1'salm  cviii.  13. 


The  Profanation  of  Marriage.  \  19 

you  are  born  with  your  shouts  and  joyous  anima- 
tion ;  God  loves  to-  see  you  and  to  hear  you.  The 
Providence  of  little  birds  and  of  the  lilies  of  the 
field.  He  desires  especially  to  be  the  God  of  large 
families.  He  keeps  in  reserve  for  them  His  best 
blessings,  and  gives  them  inexpressible  charms, 
which  draw  towards  them  the  sympathy,  the  pity, 
and  the  generosity  of  benevolent  hearts.  There 
you  will  find  none  of  that  dull  silence  which  sad- 
dens empty  hearths  ;  there,  the  hearts  of  parents 
are  not  exposed  to  that  foolish  idolatrv  which  is 
seen  growing  around  an  only  child ;  the  number 
does  not  divide  the  love,  it  multiplies  it ;  there  are 
no  irreparable  absences,  no  mourning  that  cannot 
be  consoled ;  the  flower  that  God  gathers  leaves 
behind  it  lovable  sisters,  who  are  loved  the  more, 
as  if  to  avenge  the  treason  of  death  ;  there,  work, 
devotion,  sacrifice,  are  imposed  and  perpetuated 
in  glorious  and  sacred  tradition  ;  there,  are  elect 
to  people  heaven  ;  soldiers,  to  serve  the  country  ; 
pioneers,  to  take  possession  of  the  world.  The  em- 
pire of  the  earth  belongs  to  large  families:  Crcs- 
cite,  innltiplicaniini  et  replete  terrain. 

A  Christian  who  understands  this,  and  who 
knows  how  to  enter  into  the  designs  of  God,  pre- 
pares with  a  deep  respect  for  himself  for  the  honor 
of  paternity,  and  when  the  hour  is  come  for  him, 
he  says  to  God,  like  the  young  Tobias:  "Lord, 
Thou  knowest  that  not  for  fleshly  lust  do  I  take 
my  sister  to  wife,  but  only  for  the  love  of  pos- 
terity, in  which  Thy  name  shall  be  blessed  for- 
ever and  ever."  And  he  rejoices  to  hear  fall  on  the 


I2O  The  Profanation  of  Marringc. 

head  of  her  whom  he  has  taken  for  a  companion 
this  blessing  of  the  Church :  "  May  she  be  fertile 
in  children  :  "  Sit  foecunda  in  sobole? 

And  is  it  to  be  expected  that  God  will  bestow 
His  blessing  on  sinfully  restricted  families  as  upon 
those  where  fecundity  obeys  the  laws  of  nature  ? 
That  cannot  be ;  against  the  violators  of  His  law 
God  prepares  a  terrible  revenge.  He  allows  those 
who  have  deceived  Him  to  enjoy  for  a  time  the 
fruit  of  their  parsimonious  fecundity.  And  when 
their  heart  is  engrossed,  when  they  have  centred 
all  their  hopes  with  all  their  love  in  the  only  son  or 
in  the  two  little  creatures  to  whom  they  have  re- 
stricted their  family, — death,  the  sad  messenger  of 
Divine  Justice,  comes  to  knock  at  the  door  of  their 
home,  and  carries  off,  in  spite  of  their  cries  and 
their  prayers,  those  who  leave  behind  them  neither 
brothers  nor  sisters  to  console  for  their  loss. 

Again,  it  is  better  for  God  to  punish  quickly, 
for  His  vengeance  delayed  would  become  perhaps 
more  terrible.  The  only  child,  the  object  of  an 
idolatrous  worship,  opens  its  soul  to  all  the  pas- 
sions bound  together  by  a  monstrous  selfishness. 
Allow  him  to  grow  up ;  neither  the  warnings,  nor 
the  tears,  nor  the  threats  of  those  who  have  too 
fondly  loved  him  can  arrest  his  unbridled  course 
on  the  road  to  perdition,  at  the  end  of  which,  vic- 
tim of  debauchery  or  of  some  shameful  catastrophe, 
he  will  leave  to  his  unfortunate  parents  a  cursed 

1  Et  nunc.  Doaiine,  tu  scis  quia  n<»n  luxurice  causa  accipio  sororem 
meam  conjugem,  sed  sola  posleritatis  dilectione,  in  qua  benedicatur 
nomen  tuum  in  srccula  sa?culornm. — Tob.  viii.  9. 


The  Profanation  of  Marriage.  1 2 1 

remembrance,  to  which  they  can  only  give  utter- 
ance in  this  cry  of  despair :  Love,  hope,  fortune, 
honor,  all  are  lost ! 

Afterwards,  if  there  are  regrets,  groans,  tears, 
and  reproaches  for  the  hearth  desolated  by  the 
justice  of  God,  whose  fault  will  it  be?  I  have 
more  than  once  been  the  sorrowful  witness  of  this 
desolation,  which  is  only  increased  by  powerless 
desires.  They  would  replace  the  children  that  are 
no  more,  but  the  time  is  past,  or  perhaps  God  is 
opposed  to  it.  And  then  they  imagine  that  other 
unions  would  be  happier ;  they  are  irritated  at  the 
inflexible  law  which  holds  two  sterile  lives  en- 
chained ;  but  the  law,  holy  and  just,  does  its  work : 
it  chastises  those  who  have  outraged  it.  This 
chastisement  is  their  due,  not  only  because  they 
have  offended  God  and  cheated  nature,  but  also 
because  they  have  betrayed  their  country. 

All  public  men  who  are  anxious  about  the  fate 
of  nations  keep  an  open  eye  on  the  census  of  the 
families  of  which  they  are  composed.  The  more 
numerous  these  families,  the  greater  the  true  rich- 
es of  a  nation ;  for  the  chief  of  all  riches  is  life,  is 
strength ;  and  these  only  increase  in  order  to  invade 
and  take  possession  of  the  world.  God  has  willed 
it  thus ;  He  said  to  the  first  human  pair :  "  In- 
crease, and  multiply,  and  fill  the  earth: "  Crescite, 
multiplicamini  et  replete  terrain.  Such  is  the  law : 
the  empire  of  the  world  belongs  to  prolific  nations. 
They  may  be,  perhaps,  less  polished  than  others, 
coarse,  barbarous  ;  but  what  does  it  matter  ?  They 
possess  in  their  generous  blood  that  with  which 


1 22  The  Profanation  of  Marriage. 

they  may  become  masters.  If  the  country  where 
they  swarm  is  too  narrow  for  them,  like  the  la- 
borious bees,  they  take  their  flight  towards  other 
countries.  The  Old  and  the  New  World,  conti- 
nents and  islands,  are  peopled  by  their  emigration. 
Everywhere  they  lay  hold  of  unoccupied  land, 
everywhere  they  accumulate  fertile  generations, 
everywhere  they  stand  ready  to  replace  those 
peoples  who  become  extinct. 

These  latter  again  deceive  the  eye  by  a  factitious 
prosperity.  By  lessening  families,  they  inflate  in- 
dividual fortunes ;  they  create  a  current  of  busi- 
ness, of  luxury,  of  pleasure,  and  I  know  not  what 
refinements  of  civilization  they  mistake  for  life. 
But  true  life  is  exhausted  in  those  abject  calcula- 
tions which  limit  fecundity.  Where  there  is  fear 
of  children,  there  the  population  decreases.  Where 
the  population  decreases,  it  is  seen  to  clutch  with 
selfish  avidity  its  share  of  the  possessions  aug- 
mented by  vacancies,  and  soon  there  are  neither 
enough  strong  chests  nor  enough  generous  hearts 
to  oppose  innumerable  and  needy  legions  which 
prolific  nations  hurl  against  a  sterile  people.  So 
that,  if  extinction  is  not  produced  by  the  blow  of  a 
warlike  invasion,  it  will  be  the  result  of  pacific 
infiltration.  The  country  whose  population  de- 
creases, incapable  of  sufficing  by  itself  for  the  ex- 
igencies of  its  languid  and  vitiated  life,  allows  itself 
to  be  invaded  by  degrees  by  strangers  who  send 
it  their  surplus.  Yesterday  they  were  hundreds, 
to-day  they  are  thousands,  to-morrow  they  will  be 
millions.  And  by  the  force  of  multiplying  they 


The  Profanation  of  Marriage.  123 

will  fill  the  hospitable  land  where  their  swarms 
have  settled  down,  and  will  take  the  place  of  the 
people  who  would  not  increase. 

Do  you  not  feel  that  it  is  so  ?  Ah !  pardon  me. 
For  a  long  time  this  idea  has  haunted  me  like  a 
nightmare,  and  I -ask  myself  whether  at  this  hour 
there  is  not  a  people  to  whom  God  might  say,  as 
the  aged  Jacob  said  to  his  son  :  "  Ruben,  my 
first-born,  thou  art  my  strength,  and  the  beginning 
of  my  sorrow ;  excelling  in  gifts,  greater  in  com- 
mand. Thou  art  poured  out  as  water,  grow  thou 
not."  '  God  grant  that  I  may  be  mistaken ! 

ii. 

We  have  just  seen  how  marriage  is  profaned  in 
its  chief  blessing.  There  is  yet  another,  without 
which  married  life  becomes  a  torment,  and  which 
must  be  assured  at  all  costs :  fidelity.  Fidelity  is 
made  up  of  love,  of  esteem,  of  confidence,  and  of 
sincerity.  It  is  founded,  not  upon  external  gifts, 
which  time  and  circumstances  may  alter,  but  upon 
the  solid  gifts  of  the  mind,  which  experience 
strengthens  and  emulation  perfects.  It  lives  on 
open-hearted  and  loving  confidences.  It  applies 
itself  with  generosity  and  devotedness  to  share  in 
solicitude,  labor,  and  suffering.  It  has  pity  for 
weaknesses  and  failings ;  it  pardons  faults  and 
soothes  wounds.  It  is  prudent,  discreet,  and  likes 
not  to  be  suspected.  In  short,  it  binds  hearts  to- 

1  Ruben  primogenitus  metis,  tu  fortitudo  mea  et  principium  doloris 
mei;  prior  in  donis,  major  imperio.  Effusus  es  sicut  aqua,  non  cres- 
cas.— Gen.  xlix.  3,  4. 


1 24  The  Profanation  of  Marriage. 

gather,  and  renders  the  conjugal  union  as  happy  as 
it  can  be,  the  imperfections  ot  our  poor  nature 
being  taken  into  account. 

What  a  great  blessing !  The  wise,  the  Christian 
man  will  make  sure  that  he  has  it. 

The  Christian  prepares  for  marriage  by  the  ap- 
prenticeship of  virtue,  which  every  faithful  heart 
should  practise.  His  love  is  a  delicate  and  pre- 
cious flower,  whose  splendor,  grace,  and  perfume 
he  reserves  for  one  only  feast.  No  one  shall  know 
it,  no  one  shall  touch  it,  no  one  shall  inhale  its 
mysterious  odor,  before  the  virgin  who  shall  pos- 
sess it  entirely.  Obedient  to  the  counsels  of  divine 
wisdom,  he  will  give  no  woman  power  over  his 
soul. '  His  modesty,  his  reserve,  his  generous  ef- 
fort will  allow  him  to  leave  none  of  his  honor  and 
his  strength  there  where  so  many  unhappy  young 
men  have  miserably  given  way.  It  is  from  God 
that  he  expects  the  companion  of  his  life,  and  he 
desires  to  have  merited  her,  for  the  prudent  and 
good  woman  is  the  recompense  of  the  just  for  all 
the  good  he  has  done. a 

Above  all  human  advantages,  he  seeks  .the  di- 
vine advantages  of  his  union.  Instead  of  a  fortune, 
which  adversity  overturns,  instead  of  deceptive 
charms  and  vain  beauty,  which  time  withers,  he  pre- 
fers virtue.  Men  may  deceive  him  ;  before  asking 

1  Non  des  mulieri  potestatem  anim^e  tuae. — Ecclus.  ix.  2. 

3  Domus  et  divitiae  dantur  a  parentibus,  a  Domino  auteni  proprie 
uxor  prudens.  —  Prov.  xiv.  41. 

Pars  bona  mulier  bona,  in  parte  timentium  Deum  dabitur  viro  pro 
factis  bonis. — Ecclus.  xxvi.  3. 


The  Profanation  of  Marriage.  125 

them  for  information,  he  takes  counsel  of  God,  and 
he  learns  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures  that  the  object 
of  his  desires,  "  is  the  courageous  woman,  whose 
price  is  beyond  that  of  the  most  precious  treasures, 
and  who  can  receive  into  a  steadfast  heart  the 
confidence  of  a  manly  heart ; '  it  is  the  wise  woman, 
who  buildeth  her  house;2  the  diligent  woman, 
who  is  the  crown  of  her  husband  ; 3  it  is  the  gentle 
woman,  who  fills  with  joy  the  heart  of  her  husband, 
and  doubles  the  number  of  his  years  ; 4  it  is  the  in- 
dustrious woman,  who  eats  only  the  bread  she 
has  gained; 5  it  is  the  simple  woman,  who  despises 
the  ridiculous  use  of  paint  and  overloading  with  or- 
naments, and  an  exaggerated  attention  to  dress ; 6  it 
is  the  loving,  prudent,  chaste,  sober,  careful,  kind, 
submissive  woman,  who  not  only  never  gives  oc- 
casion to  blaspheme  the  sacred  word  of  God,  but 
also  never  gives  occasion  to  doubt  her  adorable 
goodness. '  When  the  Christian  man  has  found 
her,  he  exclaims :  Spouse  of  my  soul,  "  many 
daughters  have  gathered  together  riches,  thou  hast 

1  Mulierem  fortem   quis  inveniet  ?      Procul   et  de    ultimis  finibus 
prsetium  ejus.      Confidit  in  eacor  viri  sui. — Prov.  xxxi.  10,  n. 

2  Mulier  sapiens  redificat  domum  suam.  -Ibid.  xiv.  I. 

3  Mulier  diligens  corona  est  viro  suo. — Ibid.  xii.  4. 

4  Mulieris  bonse  beatus  vir;  numerusenim  annorum  illius  duplex. — 
Ecclus.  xxvi.  I. 

5  Consideravit  semitas  domus  suse,  et  panem  otiosa  non  comedit. — 
Prov.  xxxi.  27. 

6  Quarum  non  sit  extrinsecus  capillatura,  aut  circumdatio  auri,  aut 
indumenti  vestimentorum  cultus. — I.  St.  Pet.  iii.  3. 

1  Adolescentulos  ut  virus  ament,  filios  suos  diligant,  prudentes, 
castas,  sobrias,  domus  curam  habentes,  benignas,  subditas  viris  suis, 
ut  non  blasphemetur  verbum  Dei. 


1 26  The  Profanation  of  Marriage. 

surpassed  them  all:"  Multce filia  congrcgaverunt 
divitias,  tu  supergressa  cs  universas. '  And  how 
happy  he  is  in  seeing  her  so  beautiful  with  true 
beauty,  she  who,  having  prepared  herself  in  retire- 
ment, prayer,  and  pious  waiting  on  the  will  of  God, 
is  happy  to  love  in  him  a  wise  man,  who  has  kept 
for  his  spouse  the  treasures  of  a  spotless  life ;  a 
courageous  man,  who  will  know  how  to  protect  her 
weakness ;  a  true  child  of  God,  who  will  be  the 
kindest  of  masters  and  the  tenderest  of  friends. 
They  suit  each  other,  they  love  each  other,  they 
unite  their  hands  and  their  hearts,  and  offer  to 
God,  with  religious  respect,  the  consent  which 
binds  them  together.  They  have  entered  into 
marriage  by  the  gate  of  wisdom ;  they  will  remain 
in  it  under  the  guard  of  fidelity. 

Alas !  we  may  say  of  the  gate  of  wisdom  what 
Our  Lord  said  of  the  gate  of  heaven  :  Quam  an- 
gusta  porta  .'....  qua  ducit  ad  vitam!  et  pauci  sunt 
qui  inveniunt  earn : a  Narrow  gate !  There 
are  few  who  find  it.  "  For  the  few  consolations 
which  Christian  marriage  gives  us,  how  many  are 
the  unfaithfulnesses  which  sadden  us  !  They  arise, 
to  begin  with,  from  the  profanations  of  those  of 
whom  the  Angel  Raphael  said  to  young  Tobias : 
"  Who  in  such  manner  receive  matrimony,  as  to 
shut  out  God  from  themselves,  and  from  their 
mind,  and  to  give  themselves  to  their  lust,  as  the 
horse  and  mule,  which  have  not  understanding." 

1  Prov.  xxxi.  29.  *  St.  Matt.  vii.  14. 

J  Hi  namque  qui  conjugium  ita  suscipiunt,  ut  Deum  a  se  et  a  sua 
mente  excludant,  et  suse  libidini  ita  vacent,  sicut  equus  et  mulus,  qui- 
bus  non  est  intellectus. -Tob.  vi.  17. 


The  Profanation  of  Marriage.  127 

The  beauty  of  the  flesh  allures  them,  and  as  if  be- 
witched by  the  charms  which  speak  to  their  senses, 
they  see  no  farther.  Are  there  virtues  or  vices 
under  the  fragile  mantle  which  time  will  destroy  ? 
They  do  not  wish  to  think  about  that.  Marriage 
is  for  them  only  a  voluptuous  feast,  of  which  they 
forget  the  perpetual  day  following,  full  of  decep- 
tions and  stern  duties. 

But  they  are  not  alone  in  defying  the  future. 
"  Wide  is  the  gate,  and  many  there  are  who  go 
in  thereat : "  Lata  porta,  et  multi  sunt  qui  intrant 
per  earn.  ' — It  would  be  vain  to  seek  in  their 
hearts  for  a  spark  of  that  true  love,  which  alone 
can  bind  together,  and  forever,  two  human  lives ; 
interest,  vanity,  levity,  insincerity,  are  to-day  the 
too  common  agents  in  matrimonial  unions. 

This  man  wishes  to  quit  an  honest  mediocrity, 
where  his  ambition  is  ill  at  ease,  or  he  desires  to 
remake  an  injured  fortune.  The  dowry  has  for 
him  sovereign  charms,  which  eclipse  all  beauty, 
and  advantageously  replace  all  theological  and 
moral  virtues. 

That  woman  blushes  for  the  humble  condition 
whence  her  family  has  risen,  and  for  the  honest 
toil  which  has  made  her  an  enviable  heiress.  To 
hide  her  common  origin,  and  to  give  her  vanity  a 
right  to  wear  the  insignia  of  nobility,  she  marries 
a  name  and  a  title  without  being  anxious  to  possess 
a  heart. 

Here,  parents  and  children  hurry  a  marriage, 
as  if  it  were  a  question  of  bringing  about  the  end 

1  St.  Matt.  vii.  13. 


1 28  The  Profanation  of  Marriage. 

of  the  world.  No  one  thinks  of  demanding  from 
the  past  pledges  for  the  future,  nor  of  fathoming 
souls  in  order  to  measure  their  dispositions  and 
virtues.  An  interview  is  sufficient  to  make  them 
think  they  understand  each  other,  and  on  the 
faith  of  superficial  convenience  two  lives,  almost 
strange  to  each  other,  are  condemned  from  that 
day  forward  to  meet  in  the  most  delicate  and 
most  awful  of  intimacies. 

Criminal  levity,  often  mingled  with  notorious 
insincerity  ;  every  one  conspiring  to  deceive ; 
some  hiding  defects,  others  concealing  infirmities  ; 
these  giving  a  false  importance  to  lessened  for- 
tunes, those  covering  with  false  appearances  vices 
artificially  allayed  and  ready  to  re-awaken  as  soon 
as  they  shall  have  doubled  the  cape  of  wedlock. 

I  will  not  enter  into  the  details  of  all  the  motives 
and  influences  which  make  modern  marriage  a 
captivation  of  the  senses,  an  affair  of  money,  a 
satisfying  of  pride,  an  undignified  contract,  a  dis- 
loyal compact ;  but  rest  assured  that  on  the  vast 
arch  under  which  the  greater  part  of  married 
people  pass  may  be  written  in  capital  letters : 
Passion,  Interest,  Vanity,  Levity,  Insincerity. 

After  this,  is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  sensual 
love  wounds  the  delicacy  of  chaste  love,  and  that 
there  should  be  in  marriage  such  disenchantment, 
such  loss  of  affection,  such  contempt,  which  date 
from  the  day  when  an  inconstant  man  has  been 
without  respect  and  without  pity  for  maiden 
modesty  ?  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  beautiful 
women  without  virtue  should  be  extravagant,  that 


The  Profanation  of  Marriage.  129 

others  desire  them,  and  that  they  make  themselves 
to  be  desired  ?  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  wo- 
men who  are  taken  for  their  money  do  not  give 
their  hearts ;  that  men  who  are  married  for  their 
name  and  their  title  are  not  loved  ?  It  is  to  be  won- 
dered at  that  hasty  unions  are  badly  cemented  ; 
that  souls  who  have  not  been  scrutinized  should 
show  themselves  in  intimacy  under  a  repulsive  as- 
pect ;  and  that  persons  who  are  scarcely  acquainted 
should  forsake  each  other,  when  they  see  their 
moral  deformities  ?  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that 
defects,  infirmities,  failings,  vices,  about  which 
they  did  not  wish  to  think,  or  which  cunning  and 
falsehood  disguised,  suddenly  reveal  themselves, 
to  the  great  detriment  of  domestic  peace  and  hap- 
piness ?  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  we  see  burst 
forth  in  daily  life  suspicions,  jealousies,  repug- 
nance, contempt,  disgust,  anger,  hatred,  rancor? 
Finally,  is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  unfaithfulness 
has  installed  itself  in  the  home  where  passion,  in- 
terest, vanity,  levity,  insincerity  have  enviously 
conspired  against  the  great  blessing  of  fidelity  ? 

Yet  again,  I  see  bitter  regrets,  I  hear  murmurs 
and  reproaches.  They  complain  of  being  crushed 
under  the  inflexible  yoke  of  the  indissolubilitv  of 
the  conjugal  tie  ;  but  whose  fault  is  it?  The  guilty 
person  is  not  God  Who  offers  His  counsel  in  the 
great  business  in  which  human  life  is  engaged, 
and  Who,  in  fact,  has  only  made  a  law  of  progress 
and  perfection.  The  guilty  one  is  man,  who  has 
taken  counsel  only  with  his  evil  instincts  and  his 
folly,  and  who,  knowing  the  law,  has  defied  its 


1 30  The  Profanation  of  Marriage. 

holy  rigors.  If  he  suffers,  I  pity  him  ;  but  I  cannot 
abstain  from  saying  with  the  Psalmist :  "  Thou 
art  just,  O  Lord,  and  Thy  judgment  is  right :  " 
Justus  es  Do  mine,  et  rectum  judicium  tuum. ' 

Gentlemen,  you  will  understand  better  the  just 
reprisals  of  the  divine  law  if  you  will  consider 
with  me  how  the  best  and  most  sacred  of  all  the 
benefits  of  the  conjugal  union,  the  sacrament,  is 
treated  to-day. 

III. 

The  prudent  measures  which  human  wisdom, 
led  by  the  spirit  of  God,  takes,  are  for  the  Chris- 
tian a  precious  guarantee  of  the  solidity,  peace,  and 
prosperity  of  his  marriage.  Nevertheless,  in  the 
most  honest  and  well  assorted  souls  nature  has 
its  outbursts,  and  can  make  its  imperfections  so 
keenly  felt,  as  to  seriously  menace  the  peace  of 
married  life.  Against  these  accidents  God  has 
placed  safeguards  in  order  to  justify  fully  the  se- 
verity of  the  law  of  which  He  has  revived  the  in- 
flexible rigor  for  Christian  generations.  He  has 
raised  marriage  to  the  dignity  of  a  sacrament,  the 
virtue  of  which  continues  together  with  the  con- 
jugal tie. 

"  This  sacrament,"  say  St.  Thomas,  "  is  the  most 
important  of  all  the  benefits  of  marriage,  for  it 
gives  grace,  more  worthy  than  nature,  and  strong- 
er than  she  is  to  cement  the  union  of  those  who 
marry."  * 

1  Ps.  cxviii.  137. 

2  Proles  et  fides  perlinent  ad  matrimonium,  secundum  quod  est  in 


The  Profanation  of  Marriage.  13,1 

I  will  not  repeat  what  I  have  already  said  about 
the  efficacy  of  grace  in  marriage. '     By  perfecting 
natural  love,  by  rendering  it  wise,  patient,  just, 
merciful,  pure,  and  faithful  in  duty,  it  draws  hearts 
•  together  in  such  a  manner  that  nothing  shall  ever- 
more separate  them.     It  is  especially  in  the  re- 
ligious life  of  husband  and  wife  that  its  unitive 
strength  is  manifested.     Their  heart  is  resplendent 
with  the  light  of  faith,  and  the  peace  of  God  reigns 
there.     They  believe  the  same  truths  ;  they  adore, 
they  love,  they  pray  to,  they  serve  together  the 
same  God,  the  same  Christ  Who  has  blessed  them  ; 
they  invoke  Him  to  share  in  their  joy ;  they  find 
consolation  for  their  troubles  at  the  foot  of  the 
cross,  which  they  clasp  in  their  embrace ;    they 
share  in  all  labor  and  adversity  as  well  as  in  all 
happiness.     The  religious  unity  of  their  life  serves 
as  an  example  to  the  family  which  is  born  of  their 
sacred  love. 

Behold  the  effect  of  grace !  But  who  are  they 
who  receive  it?  In  many  cases,  beside  a  believing 
and  truly  Christian  soul  there  kneels  a  soul  with- 
out any  virtue,  except  a  vulgar  honesty,  and  he  pre- 
sents himself  to  receive  the  blessing  of  God.  One 
receives  the  grace  of  the  sacrament,  but  the  other? 

officium  nature  humanre;  sncramentum  autem  secundum  quod  est  in 
institutione  divina.  Ergo  sacramentum  est  principalius  in  matrimonio 
quam  alia  duo  ....  perfectio  gratire  est  dignior  perfectione  naturae .... 
fides  et  proles  pertinent  ad  usum  matrimonii,  ....  sed  indivisibilitas, 
quam  sacramentum  importat,  pertinet  ad  ipsum  matrimonium  secun- 
dum se  . . . .  et  secundum  hoc  sacramentum  est  essentialius  matrimonio 
quam  fides  et  proles. — Snmm.  TheoL,  supp.,  qunest.  49,  a.  3. 
1  Conference  I.,  The  Sanctity  of  Marriage,  part  ii. 


132  The  Profanation  of  Marriage. 

— And  these  marriages  are  made  every  day  !  Poor 
young  girls  know  not  how  to  resist  the  pres- 
sure of  what  are  called  human  conventionalities. 
Deceived  by  the  vague  promises  of  an  ill-regulated 
sentimentalism,  they  resign  themselves  to  these 
kinds  of  mixed  marriages,  which  ally  their  faith 
with  indifference  or  incredulity,  imagining  that  by 
strength  of  love  they  will  subdue  a  rebellious 
heart  to  the  grace  of  God.  But  they  do  not  wait 
long  for  the  chastisement  of  having  lent  their  con- 
currence to  the  profanation  of  a  sacrament,  and 
they  soon  perceive  that  their  marriage  has  failed. 

It  is  a  sad  union,  because  God  is  not  in  it.  They 
can  forget  this  absence  of  God  in  the  distractions 
of  novelty  and  in  the  intoxication  of  their  young 
love.  But  little  by  little  the  tie  is  loosened,  pre- 
occupations and  trials  begin  to  disturb  life,  and 
they  find  around  them  no  common  support,  no 
refuge  where  two  afflicted  hearts  can  together  find 
consolation.  The  only  intimacy  which  time  re- 
spects, religious  intimacy,  is  impossible.  They 
each  retire  sorrowfully  into  themselves,  and  an 
incurable  sadness  darkens  the  lives  of  those  who 
counted  on  a  cloudless  future. 

Such  a  union  is  sad  and  cruel.  May  not  the 
Christian  wife  be  struck  with  terror  at  the  thought 
that  she  is,  as  it  were,  cursed  in  the  half  of  her 
life  ;  that  God,  Who  inclines  towards  her,  repulses 
him  whom  she  loves  best  in  the  world  ;  that  there 
is  a  heartrending  contradiction,  almost  a  lie,  in 
the  promises  by  which  two  hearts  that  love  have 
given  themselves  to  each  other,  because  they  can- 


The  Profanation  of  Marriage.  133 

not  be  united  in  the  noblest  and  most  sacred  por- 
tion of  their  life  ? 

Sad  and  cruel,  the  union  is  also  full  of  peril. 
Without  faith  and  without  the  love  of  God,  will  a 
man  employ  against  the  religion  of  his  wife  the 
disloyal  weapons  of  blasphemy  and  raillery?  Will 
he  carry  on  an  impious  war  against  her  convic- 
tions and  her  religious  practices,  after  having  prom- 
ised her  liberty?  Perhaps  it  may  be  so.  But  it  is 
by  the  allurements  of  his  love  that  man  most  easily 
assures  the  triumph  of  his  irreligion.  He  knows 
how  to  appear  so  good,  so  tender,  so  full  of  natural 
virtue  and  amiable  qualities,  that  the  unfortunate 
companion  of  his  life  forgets  that  he  is  without 
grace,  yields  in  cowardly  compliance,  and  slips 
little  by  little  down  the  slopes  of  a  contemptible 
apostasy. 

If  the  Christian  woman,  jealous  of  her  liberty 
and  faithful  to  her  duty,  resists  violence  and  allure- 
ments of  her  infidel  husband,  she  is  condemned  to 
a  daily  martyrdom.  She  understands  then  that 
she  has  no  right  to  complain,  but  that  she  must 
repent  of  her  errors  and  ask  from  the  grace  of 
God  strength  to  be  heroic.  Who  knows  but  that 
by  her  prayers,  by  her  tears,  by  the  sufferings  of 
her  martyred  heart,  she  may  perhaps  obtain  the 
conversion  of  her  beloved,  and  enjoy  with  him  some 
happy  days  in  the  winter  of  a  union  all  the  seasons 
of  which  have  been  desolate? 

If  such  are  the  marriages  in  which  the  sacra- 
ment is  only  partly  profaned,  what  must  it  be  when 
the  profanation  is  complete !  Unfortunately,  this 


1 34  The  Profanation  of  Marriage. 

crime  is  of  more  frequent  occurrence  than  is  gen- 
erally believed.  Under  the  power  of  laws  which 
separate  the  civil  contract  from  the  religious  mar- 
riage, it  is  only  too  common  to  regard  the  sacra- 
ment as  a  formality,  in  good  taste,  which  might, 
strictly  speaking,  be  done  without,  but  which  must 
still  be  submitted  to,  for  fear  of  losing  one's  posi- 
tion in  society.  It  is  prepared  for  like  a  festival, 
which  gives  to  the  wedding  more  importance  than 
the  prosaic  appearance  of  the  affianced  pair  with 
their  witnesses  before  a  civil  magistrate,  the  Pontiff 
of  the  State.  They  think  of  all  the  details  of  the  fes- 
tival, calculate  the  cost,  invite  relations  and  friends, 
and  enjoy  beforehand  the  splendor  they  desire  to 
give  to  it.  One  thing  only  is  forgotten,  that  it  is  an 
occasion  for  receiving  the  grace  of  God.  After 
having  extorted  at  the  last  moment  an  absolution 
which  is  useless,  they  go  to  kneel  at  the  altar. 
And  behold,  there,  at  the  invitation  of  the  priest 
who  is  the  witness  of  their  vows,  two  sacrilegious 
ministers  exchange  between  them  a  sacred  thing  of 
which  neither  of  them  can  receive  the  full  efficacy. 
Their  word  is  sufficiently  strong  to  impose  on  them 
a  yoke,  but  not  strong  enough  to  adorn  this  yoke 
with  the  divine  grace  which  would  make  it  easy  and 
light.  Instead  of  grace,  it  is  the  divine  curse  which 
descends  into  the  souls  of  these  profaners,  con- 
demned to  carry  until  the  death  of  the  one  or  the 
other  the  chain  which  the  sacrilegious  exchange 
of  their  vows  has  just  forged. 

Even  when  their  union  had  been  prepared  for 
with  all  the  precautions  of  human  wisdom,  it  will 


The  Profanation  of  Marriage.  135 

be  miserable,  because  grace  is  not  there  to  correct 
the  imperfections,  the  faults,  and  the  vices  of  na- 
ture. How  much  the  more  if  the  union  is  tarnished 
with  the  iniquities  and  follies  which  dishonor  the 
greater  number  of  modern  marriages  !  Expect  all 
manner  of  evils,  as  the  curse  of  God  follows  and 
chastises  the  sacrilege  so  long  as  reparation  is 
not  made.  The  two  slaves  of  indissolubility  will 
complain  bitterly  of  being  riveted  to  each  other : 
so  much  the  worse  for  them,  their  punishment  is 
just.  It  is  here  that  must  be  applied  in  all  its 
divine  severity  this  sentence  of  Wisdom  :  "  By 
what  things  a  man  sinneth,  by  the  same  also  he  is 
tormented  !  "  Per  qua  pec  cat  quis,  per  JKEC  et  tor- 
qnetur. ' 

There  only  remains  to  draw  the  conclusions 
from  what  you  have  just  heard :  they  are  self- 
evident.  It  is  not  the  divine  law  which  must  be 
made  responsible  for  the  evils  of  which  the  adver- 
saries of  indissolubility  complain.  The  divine  law 
is  wise  because  it  is  a  law  of  progress  and  perfec- 
tion ;  the  divine  law  is  just,  because  it  chastises, 
according  to  their  deserts,  those  who  profane 
marriage.  In  pity  for  the  innocent  who  sometimes 
suffer  with  the  guilty,  in  pity  for  the  guilty  them- 
selves, the  Church  consents  to  separations  which, 
without  breaking  the  conjugal  tie,  interrupt  the 
living  together  and  allow  inconstant  wills  to  be 
spared  from  committing  irreparable  faults,  sick 
hearts  to  be  healed  far  away  from  that  which 
wounds  them,  repentance  to  come  one  day  and 

1  Wis.  xi.  17 


136  The  Profanation  of  Marriage. 

knock  at  the  door  for  pardon.  It  is  all  the  Church 
can  do.  The  divine  law  does  not  yield  before  mis- 
fortunes too  often  and  too  well  merited.  Far 
from  being  remedied,  these  misfortunes  can  only 
be  aggravated  by  replacing  the  law  of  indissolu- 
bility  with  one  of  rupture  and  repudiation ;  divorce 
gives  encouragement  to  folly  and  human  perver- 
sity, and  fatally  multiplies  the  profanations  whose 
lamentable  consequences  I  have  just  explained  to 
you.  For  the  evils  of  marriage  there  is  but  one 
remedy,  which  is  marriage  itself,  contracted  with 
the  conditions  of  self-respect,  confidence  in  God, 
prudence,  wisdom,  disinterestedness,  seriousness, 
sincerity,  purity,  a  spirit  of  faith  which  will  assure 
to  husband  and  wife  the  possession  of  the  three 
great  blessings  of  their  union. 

Young  men,  listen  to  me.  You  must  to-day 
understand  that  it  is  unjust  to  bring  only  a  tar- 
nished purity  and  an  enfeebled  life  into  a  union  in 
which  you  exact  the  integrity  of  virtue  and  the 
plenitude  of  life ;  that  every  immoral  shaking  of 
your  senses  is  a  terrible  blow  carried  to  your 
posterity  ;  that  large  families  have  a  special  bless- 
ing from  God  ;  that  children  are  the  crown  of  their 
parents,  the  hope,  the  strength,  the  glory  of  your 
country.  You  must  distrust  that  love  which 
belongs  only  to  the  senses,  regulate  your  choice, 
not  after  human  custom,  but  according  to  Christian 
custom,  remember  that  the  choice  is  not  obligatory 
and  must  be  well  considered,  and  that  sincerity  is 
the  nearest  allied  to  fidelity.  Prepare  for  the 
sacrament  with  that  religious  respect  which  is  due 


The  Profanation  of  Marriage.  1 37 

to  sacred  things,  and  with  firm  conviction  that  it 
alone  is  the  true  marriage. 

In  possession  of  the  blessings  which  God  prom- 
ises to  those  who  marry  holily,  piously  bound  with 
a  chain  which  He  has  blessed  and  of  which  His 
unction  softens  the  rigor,  happy  dwellers  at  a 
hearth  where  there  is  love,  where  religion  is  re- 
splendent, where  the  peace  of  God  reigns,  you 
will  prove  to  the  world  better  than  sermons,  books, 
or  treatises,  that  marriage,  with  its  stern  duties 
and  its  graces,  is  a  great  sacrament :  Sacrament  nm 
hoc  magnum  cst. 

It  is  always  great,  always  holy,  even  for  those 
who  have  profaned  it.  By  stopping  the  effusion 
of  grace,  they  have  in  no  way  dried  up  its  source ; 
for  this  source  is  the  very  tie  which  unites  them. 
Instead  of  complaining  of  its  rigor  and  wearying 
themselves  with  vain  efforts  to  break  it,  let  them 
repent  of  their  sacrilegious  folly.  The  pardon  of 
God  can  reopen  the  source  which  they  have 
closed,  and  grace  can  yet  sanctify  the.  latter  days 
of  a  union  which  has  been  unhappy  only  through 
the  fault  of  those  who  contracted  it  without  fore- 
seeing its  burdens  and  without  due  preparation 
for  fulfilling  its  duties. 


CONFERENCE  VI. 
unt> 


MY  LORD  '  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  —  The  first  and 
principal  end  of  marriage  is  the  propagation  of 
the  human  race.  God  declared  His  designs  in 
this  respect  by  the  commandment  He  gave  to  our 
first  parents  :  "  Increase  and  multiply,  and  fill  the 
earth  :  "  Crescite,  multiplicamini,  et  replete  terrain. 
How  would  this  law  have  worked  in  a  state  of 
innocence  and  immortality  ?  We  do  not  know,  and 
there  is  no  need  of  our  knowing.  Let  us  be  con- 
tent to  learn  from  St.  Thomas  that  it  is  unreason- 
able to  believe  with  certain  teachers  that  God,  out 
of  respect  for  the  purity  of  our  first  parents,  would 
have  renewed  in  each,  member  of  humanity  the 
great  act  of  creation.  In  every  state  of  existence 
it  is  an  honor  to  give  life  and  thus  resemble  the 
Principle  of  all  life.  In  the  state  of  innocence  this 
honor  would  have  been  without  peril  and  without 
stain.  If  our  first  parents  had  not  sinned,  they 
would  have  seen  in  the  flesh  the  beauty  with  which 
God  originally  adorned  it.  Their  upright  nature, 
ignorant  of  the  rebelliousness  of  the  flesh,  would 
have  multiplied  at  the  same  time  grace  and  life. 
In  our  fallen  nature  it  is  no  longer  thus.  The 
honor  of  parentage  remains,  but  it  is  accompanied 

1  Monseigneur  Richard,  Archbishop  of  Paris. 
138 


Celibacy  and  Virginity.  \  39 

with  so  many  inconveniences  and  dangers  that  one 
asks  whether  it  is  allowable  to  renounce  it.  Never, 
reply  certain  interpreters,  too  fervent  and  perhaps 
too  interested  in  the  law  of  population.  This  law 
is  obligatory  on  all  human  beings.  It  is  a  reproach 
not  to  be  able  to  fulfil  it ;  it  is  a  crime  voluntarily 
to  withdraw  from  it.  With  such  reasoning,  we 
must  acknowledge  that  God  has  shown  Himself 
very  prodigal  in  reproaches  of  our  poor  race,  and 
that  there  is  in  Christian  humanity  a  number  of 
very  interesting  and  perfect  criminals. 

It  is  of  these  last  that  I  am  about  to  speak  to 
you,  not  to  excuse,  but  to  defend  them.  Against 
the  general  pretensions  of  the  advocates  of  marriage 
at  all  costs,  I  wish  to  prove  that  celibacy  and  vir- 
ginity may  become  a  condition  of  choice :  first, 
because  this  condition  is  desired  by  God  ;  secondly, 
because  it  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  most 
useful  ornaments  of  Christian  societv. 


We  have  seen  God  acting  progressively  in  the 
institution  of  marriage.  His  will  is  manifested  in 
the  typical  nuptials  of  our  first  parents ;  neverthe- 
less, it  is  not  yet  expressly,  imperatively,  and  def- 
initely established,  so  as  to  forbid  it  every  kind  of 
indulgence  towards  the  imperfections  and  failings 
of  nature.  The  indissoluble  unity  of  marriage  is 
decreed,  but  God  dispenses  with  it  for  reasons 
worthy  of  His  infinite  wisdom  and  His  compassion- 
ate kindness.  But  His  toleration  does  not  make 
Him  forget  His  original  design,  and  to  hinder  the 


140  Celibacy  and  Virginity. 

infirmity  and  perversity  of  man  from  prescribing 
against  the  unity  and  indissolubility  of  marriage, 
which  He  desires  to  be  definitely  established,  He 
causes  to  be  heard  in  the  facts  of  history  and  in  the 
teaching  of  Scripture  protestations  which  bear 
witness  to  His  preferences  and  show  to  which  side 
the  law  of  nature  inclines.  These  protestations, 
we  have  seen,  converge  in  a  formal  declaration  by 
Christ,  Who  by  virtue  of  His  rights  as  Creator, 
Redeemer,  Reformer,  and  Exemplar,  brings  back 
marriage  to  its  primitive  institution,  and  decrees 
for  regenerate  humanity  the  indispensable  unity 
and  indissolubility  of  the  conjugal  tie  :  Et  crunt 
duo  in  carne  una. — Quod  Deus  conjunxit  homo  non 
scparet. '  This  slow  and  progressive  march  of  God 
in  the  determination  of  the  matrimonial  law  is  re- 
marked in  the  preparation  of  the  evangelical  counsel 
which  requires  of  certain  privileged  souls  a  state 
nobler  and  more  perfect  than  that  of  marriage. 
God  desires  this  state,  but  before  solemnly  declar- 
ing His  will  He  allows  the  human  race  to  form 
this  common  opinion  of  celibacy  and  virginity 
which  a  great  thinker  voices  in  these  words : 
"  that  it  belongs  to  all  ages,  all  places,  all  religions, 
and  it  sees  in  continence  something  celestial, 
which  exalts  man  and  renders  him  pleasing  to  the 
Divinity."  a  If  the  Jewish  people,  infatuated  and 
proud  of  the  oracles  which  promise  it  a  deliverer" 
born  of  its  blood,  esteems  marriage  above  all  other 
states,  and  regards  sterility  as  a  reproach,  it  never- 

1  Conference  II.,  The  Conjugal  Tie,  part  i. 

2  Joseph  de  Maistre:   The  Pope,  book  iii.,  chap.  3. 


Celibacy  and  Virginity.  141 

theless  demands  continence  from  its  priests  at 
the  periods  when  their  sacred  functions  bring 
them  into  intercourse  with  God.  It  admires  the 
holy  reserve  of  women  who  in  a  way  shroud 
themselves  in  their  widowhood.  Because  you 
have  loved  chastity,  said  the  High  Priest  Joachim 
to  Judith,  because  you  have  not  taken  another 
husband,  the  hand  of  the  Lord  has  strengthened 
you,  you  shall  be  blessed  forever. ' 

The  heathen  themselves  recognize  the  beauty 
of  a  state  which  protests  against  the  corruption  of 
their  manners.  They  praise  by  the  mouth  of  their 
poets  and  orators  "the  priests  who  always  keep 
their  chastity." 3  They  call  celibacy  and  virginity 
into  the  service  of  gods  and  goddesses.  Isis,  Mi- 
nerva, Ceres,  Vesta,  are  surrounded  by  virgins.  * 
Virgins  alone  are  worthy  to  watch  the  sacred  fire 
and  to  receive  the  oracles  of  heaven ;  *  virgins 
are  venerable  and  holy. '  Virgins  deserve  the 
greatest  honors  ;  the  fasces  bow  before  them  ;  the 
first  places  are  reserved  for  them  at  all  the  festivals 
where  the  majesty  of  the  Senate  and  the  Roman 

1  Eo  quod  castitatem  amaveris,  et  post  virum  tuum  alterum  nescie- 
ris:  ideo  et  manus  Domini  confortavit  te,  et  ideo  eris  benedicta  in 
seternum. — Judith  xv.  n. 

4  Quique  sacerdotes  ca<ti,  dum  vita  manebat. — Virg.  JSneid-n.  661. 

3  See  the  work  of  Joseph  de  Maistre,  already  cited. 

4  In  the  temple  of  Minerva  at  Athens  the  sacred  fire  was  kept,  as  at 
Rome,  by  virgins.     The  same  vestals  are  found  among  other  nations, 
especially  in  India  and  Peru,  and  it  is  remarkable  that  the  violation 
of  their  vow  received  the  same  punishment  as  at  Rome. — Carli,  Let- 
tere  Americane. 

5  (Numa)  Virginitate   aliisque   caeremoniis   venerabilec  ac   sanctas 
fecit. — Tit.  Liv.  i.  29. 


142  Celibacy  and  Virginity. 

people  is  displayed  ;  and  it  is  not  too  great  a  punish- 
ment to  bury  them  alive  if  they  have  violated 
their  oaths  of  chastity.  Finally,  it  is  in  the  womb 
of  virgins  and  without  the  concurrence  of  man 
that  the  Theophani  and  divine  avatars  are  formed. ' 

What  a  strange  mystery  is  this  in  the  traditions 
of  heathenism  !  Is  it  an  echo  of  the  oracles  an- 
nouncing that  the  Virgin  of  virgins  should  bring 
forth  Emmanuel  ?  Is  it  the  mystic  dream  of  relig- 
ious instinct  in  search  of  the  state  most  suitable  for 
the  visits  of  Divinity  ?  It  matters  little.  I  desire 
to  see  in  it  only  the  marvellous  work  of  Provi- 
dence, preparing  in  the  ancient  world  the  declara- 
tion of  the  divine  desire  which  shall  one  day 
invite  souls  to  a  marriage  far  otherwise  great  and 
fecund  than  that  of  flesh  and  blood. 

At  the  hour  when  the  oracles  of  the  sibyl  vir- 
gins coincide  with  the  celebrated  prophecies  of 
Isaias  and  Jeremias  "  the  Lord  hath  created  a  new 
thing  upon  the  earth  : "  Crcavit  Dominus  novjum  su- 

1  The  books  of  the  Brahmins  declare  that  when  God  deigns  to  visit 
the  world,  He  becomes  incarnate  in  the  womb  of  a  virgin  without  in- 
tercourse of  sexes. — W.  Jones,  Stiff,  vol.  ii.,  p.  548. 

According  to  the  Japanese,  their  great  God  Xaca  was  born  of  a  virgin 
who  never  had  intercourse  with  any  man. — Life  of  St.  Francis  Xavifr, 
by  Father  Bouhours,  ii.,  liv.  v. 

The  Maceniquians,  a  people  in  Paraguay,  related  to  missionaries  that 
a  virgin  of  singular  beauty  had  brought  into  the  world  a  very  beautiful 
child,  which  arrived  at  manhood,  worked  numerous  miracles  before 
his  disciples,  and  transformed  himself  into  the  sun  which  we  see. — 
Muratori,  Cristianesimofelicf,  vol.  i. 

The  Chinese  generalize  this  doctrine.  According  to  them,  saints, 
wise  men,  deliverers  are  born  of  a  virgin. — Memoirs  of  Missionaries, 
P.  Cibot,  vol.  xi. 


Celibacy  and  Virginity.  143 

per  terrain.  "A  woman  shall  compass  a  man:  "  Fce- 
mina  circuindabit  TIT um. '  "  Hear  ye  therefore,  O 
house  of  David.  .  .  .  Behold  a  virgin  shall  conceive 
and  bear  a  son,  and  his  name  shall  be  called  Em- 
manuel."4 Virginity  gives  the  Son  of  God  to  the 
world  ;  the  virginity  of  Mary  and  the  celibacy  of 
Joseph  watch  over  His  cradle,  protect  His  infan- 
cy, and  are  admitted  by  a  special  privilege  to  con- 
template the  beauty  of  His  great  soul  and  the 
splendor  of  the  eternal  wisdom  which  radiate 
through  the  mysteries  of  His  hidden  life. 

God  is  with  us,  virgin  born  of  a  virgin  ;  in  pri- 
vate He  satisfies  her  with  the  vision  of  celestial 
things,  and  scarcely  entered  on  His  public  life  He 
promises  this  vision  to  those  who  are  clean  of 
heart : 3  Beati  mundo  corde  quoniam  ipsi  Deum  vide- 
bunt.  And  who,  then,  shall  be  clean  of  heart,  if 
not  those  who  voluntarily  and  forever  separate 
themselves  from  the  permitted  pleasures  of  the 
flesh?.  The  virgin  Christ  has  no  commandment  for 
these  as  for  those  who  marry  ;  but  at  the  very 
hour  when  He  determines  and  fixes  the  legislation 
of  marriage,  He  makes  known  His  desire  to  draw 
them  to  Himself,  and  assigns  them  a  special  place 
in  His  kingdom.  When  His  disciples,  terrified 
at  the  rigor  of  the  New  Law,  which  suppresses  the 
dispensations  of  the  Old,  and  establishes  the  con- 
jugal tie  even  until  death,  ask  of  Him  if  it  were  not 

1  Jerem.  xxxi.  22. 

*  Audite,  domus  David.  .  .  .  Dabit  Dominus  ipse  vobis  signum. 
Ecce  virgo  concipiet  et  pariet  filium,  et  vocabitur  nomen  ejus  Em- 
manuel.—  Is.  vii.  14. 

3  St.  Matt.  v.  8. 


144  Celibacy  and  Virginity. 

better  to  abstain  from  marriage,  Jesus  said  to 
them  :  "All  men  take  not  this  word,  but  they  to 
whom  it  is  given.  For  there  are  eunuchs  who 
were  born  so  from  their  mother's  womb  ;  and  there 
are  eunuchs  who  were  made  so  by  men,  and  there 
are  eunuchs  who  have  made  themselves  eunuchs 
for  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  He  that  can  take  let 
him  take  it."  Herein  is  a  mystery. ' 

Yes,  gentlemen,  there  is  a  mystery.  And  it  is 
sufficient  to  make  us  understand  that  virginity  is  a 
state  of  choice  and  privilege,  which  no  law  com- 
mands and  which  corresponds  to  a  most  intimate 
and  delicate  desire  of  the  most  pure  and  most 
holy  God,  Who  wills  to  form  certain  souls  more 
nearly  to  His  own  perfection. 

This  desire  is  only  once  expressed  by  the  Sa- 
viour. He  reverts  to  it  no  more ;  He  waits  that 
His  Spirit,  poured  out  upon  all  flesh,  may  make 
the  gift  of  God  penetrate  into  souls.  Then  the 
great  Paul  is  charged  to  remind  the  children  of 
redemption  of  the  counsel  of  the  divine  Master,  to 
Whom  he  has  consecrated  the  love  of  his  heart 
and  the  integrity  of  his  flesh. 

The  Apostle  writes  to  the  Corinthians :  Breth- 
ren, ye  are  no  more  your  own,  for  ye  are  bought 
with  a  great  price.  Glorify  and  bear  God  in  your 
body.  In  reply  to  your  inquiries,  I  tell  you  that 
it  is  good  for  a  man  not  to  touch  a  woman.  ...  I 

1  Non  omnes  capiunt  illud  seel  quibus  datum  esl.  Sunt  enim  eunu- 
chi  qui  de  matris  utero  sic  nati  sunt ;  et  sunt  eunuchi  qui  facti  sunt  ab 
hominibus  ;  et  sunt  eunuchi  qui  seipsos  castraverunt  propter  regnum 
ccelorum.  Qui  potest  capere  capiat. — St.  Matt.  xix.  II,  12. 


Celibacy  and  Virginity.  145 

would  that  all  men  were  even  as  myself ;  but  every 
one  hath  his  proper  gift  from  God,  one  after  this 
manner  and  another  after  that.  .  .  .  Let  every  man 
wherein  he  was  called,  therein  abide  with  God.  It 
is  true  that  I  have  received  no  commandment 
from  the  Lord  touching  virgins  ;  but  I  give  them 
this  counsel,  I  who  have  obtained  mercy  of  God  to 
be  faithful.  It  is  good  to  be  in  this  state.  They  who 
marry  do  not  sin,  but  they  are  exposed  to  tribula- 
tions which  I  would  spare  you.  He  who  has  no  wife 
thinks  of  God  and  seeks  to  please  Him  ;  he  who  is 
married  is  occupied  with  the  things  of  the  world 
and  desires  to  please  his  wife :  his  heart  is  divided. 
The  virgin  thinks  of  the  things  of  God,  that  she 
may  be  holy  in  body  and  spirit ;  she  that  is  married 
thinks  of  the  things  of  the  world,  how  she  may 
please  her  husband.  I  speak  this  for  your  profit, 
that  ye  may  wait  upon  the  Lord  without  distraction. 
Again,  he  who  giveth  his  daughter  in  marriage 
doeth  well,  but  he  that  giveth  her  not  in  marriage 
doeth  better.  .  .  .  She  shall  be  happier  thus.  This 
is  what  the  Spirit  of  God  has  revealed  to  me. ' 

1  Empti  enim  estis  pretio  mngno.  Glorificate  et  portate  Deum  in 
corpora  vestro.  De  quibus  autem  scripsisti  mihi :  Bonum  est  homini 
mulierem  non  tangere.  .  .  .  Volo  enim  omnes  vos  esse  sicut  meipsum  : 
sed  unusquisque  proprium  donum  habetex  Deo:  alias  quidem  sic,  alius 
vero  sic. . . .  Unusquisque  in  quo  vocatus  est,  fratres,  in  hoc  permaneat 
apud  Deum.  De  virginibus  au:em  prseceptum  Domini  non  habeo : 
consilium  autem  do,  tamquam  misericordiam  consecutus  a  Domino,  ut 
sim  fidelis.  .  .  Si  acceperis  uxorem,  non  pecca^ti  ;  et  si  nupserit 
virgo,  non  peccavit  ;  tribulntionem  tamen  carnis  habebunt  hujus- 
modi.  Ego  autem  vobis  parco. .  .  .  Volo  autem  vos  sine  solicitudine 
esse.  Qui  sine  uxore  est,  solicitus  est  qure  Domini  sunt,  quomodo 
plnceat  Deo.  Qui  autem  cum  uxore  est,  solicitus  est  qure  sunt  mun- 


146  Celibacy  and  Virginity. 

You  will  remark,  gentlemen,  that  the  Apostle, 
in  order  to  encourage  celibacy  and  virginity, 
speaks  continually  of  the  tribulations  and  cares  of 
this  life.  Another  virgin,  the  Apostle  St.  John, 
opens  the  doors  of  heaven  and  shows  us  around 
the  Lamb  thousands  of  enraptured  choristers  who 
make  the  holy  mountain  of  Sion  resound  with  a 
new  song  which  no  one  can  repeat  after  them. 
Those  are  they  who  have  not  tasted  the  dangerous 
sweets  of  terrestrial  love  :  they  are  virgins.  They 
have  the  privilege  of  following  the  Lamb  where- 
ever  He  goeth.  Glorious  first  fruits  of  humanity, 
God  has  bought  them  for  Himself  and  for  the  Lamb.1 

You  see,  gentlemen,  God  does  not  command, 
He  expresses  a  desire,  He  shows  heaven.  It  is 
sufficient  to  determine  and  fix  the  choice  of  those 
who  desire  by  the  chastity  of  the  body  to  honor 
the  most  pure  flesh  of  Christ.  2  The  first  apostles 

di,  quomodo  placeat  uxori,  et  divisus  est.  Et  mulier  innupta,  et  virgo 
cogitat  quae  Domini  sunt,  ut  sit  sancta  corpore  et  spiritu  ;  quse  au- 
tem  nupta  est,  cogitat  quce  sunt  mundi,  quomodo  placeat  viro.  Porro 
hoc  ad  utilitatem  vestram  dico,  ...  .ad  id  quod  honestum  est,  et  quod 
facultatem  praebeat  sine  impedimento  Dominum  obsecrandi.  . . .  Igitur 
et  qui  mntrimonio  jungit  virginem  suam,  bene  facit  :  et  qui  nonjungit, 
melius  facit.  .  .  .  Beatior  erit  si  sic  permanserit,  secundum  meum  con- 
silium:  puto  autem  quod  et  ego  Spiritum  Dei  habeam. — I.  Cor.  vi. 
20}  vii.  i,  7,  24,  25,  28,  32-35,  38,  40. 

1  Et  vidi,  et  ecce  Agnus  stabat  supra  montem  Sion  et  cum  eo  cen. 
turn  quadraginta  quatuor  millia.  .  .  .   Et  cantabant   quasi  canticum 
novum,  .  .  .  .  et  nemo  poterat  dicere  canticum.       Hi  sunt   qui  cum 
mulieribus  non  sunt  coinquinati,  virgines  enim  sunt.      Hi   sequuntur 
Agnum  quocumque  ierit.     Hi  empti  sunt  ex  hnminibus  primitive  Deo 
et  Agno. — Apoc.  xiv.  I,  3,  4. 

2  Si  quis  potest  in  castrate  ad  honorem  carnis  Christi,  in  humilitate 
maneat. — S.  Ignat.  ad  Folycarp.,  vol.  ii. 


Celibacy  and  Virginity.  147 

had  scarcely  closed  their  eyes  when  all  conditions 
of  Christian  society  were  overspread  by  the  luxu- 
rious growth  of  virgins  who  desired  to  live  only 
for  God.  The  holy  Doctors  show  with  legiti- 
mate pride  to  the  infamous  world,  which  has  cor- 
rupted marriage,  these  parterres  of  living  lilies, 
whose  perfume  God  is  pleased  to  inhale.1 

Tertullian,  Ambrose,  Augustine,  Jerome,  Chrys- 
ostom,  in  sublime  letters  or  learned  treatises  de- 
fend virginity  against  the  slanders  of  heresy  ;  they 
counsel  and  encourage  chaste  souls  who  have  re- 
nounced the  espousals  of  earth,  whilst  the  inspired 
lyre  of  Gregory  Nazianzen  sings  their  praises,  and 
asks  for  them  from  God  the  crowns  which  He 
cannot  grant  to  the  married  ones  of  earth.*  It 
may  perhaps  be  objected  to  these  defenders,  these 
admirers  of  virginity,  that  they  have  treated  mar- 
riage too  severely,  and  therefore  have  exagger- 
ated the  desire  of  God ;  but  for  us  there  is  an 
authority  which  brings  it  back  to  its  just  propor- 
tions, the  authority  of  the  Church. 

On  the  one  hand,  the  Church  has  proclaimed 
the  sanctity  of  marriage  and  has  covered  it  with 
the  protection  of  her  strong  and  wise  legislation ; 

1  Among  us  a  great  number  of  persons  of  both  sexes,  from  sixty  to 
seventy  years  of  age,  who  from  their  childhood  have  been  instructed 
in  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ,  persevere  in  chastity,  and  I  am  con- 
strained to  show  them  in  every  condition  of  society. — S.  Justin.,  Apol. 
i.  15. 

There  are  among  us  a  great  number  of  men  and  women  who  live  in 
celibacy,  with  the  hope  of  heirg  more  closely  united  to  God. — Athena- 
gor.,  Lfgatio  pro  Christianis.  n.  3. 

a  Carmen  in  Latidem  I'irginitatis, 


148  Celibacy  and  Virginity. 

on  the  other,  she  has  not  concealed  at  any  time  her 
preference  for  celibacy  and  virginity.  She  has 
desired  that  her  priests  should  be  those  who  receive 
the  gift  of  God  and  spiritually  mutilate  themselves 
for  the  kingdom  of  heaven's  sake.  She  has 
stretched  out  her  arms  to  chaste  souls,  and  has 
offered  them  a  privileged  place  in  her  maternal 
heart.  After  the  priesthood,  virgins,  with  her,  have 
a  right  to  the  greatest  honors  and  to  the  tenderest 
solicitude  of  her  love.  She  has  withdrawn  them 
from  the  world,  where  the  purity  of  their  life  might 
be  contaminated  by  scandalous  spectacles  and  dan- 
gerous associations.  She  has  built  for  them  vast  and 
beautiful  dwellings,  sometimes  like  palaces ;  angelic 
sanctuaries  in  whose  favor  she  interests  the  faithful ; 
of  which  she  guards  the  door,  armed  with  her 
censures  and  anathemas;  where  she  regulates  with 
jealous  care  all  the  details  of  a  life  entirely  conse- 
crated to  God.  There  one  enters  only  to  marry 
the  Eternal  Bridegroom  ;  these  divine  nuptials  are 
a  feast  embellished  with  the  most  touching  cere- 
monies and  the  sweetest  chants  of  the  Liturgy,  and 
the  Bishop,  the  father  of  the  priesthood,  alone 
has  a  right  to  bless  them. 

How  beautiful,  after  fifteen  centuries  of  Chris- 
tianity, in  the  whole  Catholic  world  is  the  glory  of 
virginity !  Around  the  enclosed  gardens  of  the 
Bridegroom,  Who  delights  in  the  midst  of  roses  and 
lilies,  heresy  is  silent,  and  marriage,  honored  with 
the  blessing  of  God,  acknowledges  itself  vanquished 
by  the  nobleness  and  the  graces  of  a  state  where 
man  renounces  the  consolations  and  joys  of  ter- 


Celibacy  and  Virginity.  149 

restrial    love,    in   order  to    belong   only  to   God. 

But  all  of  a  sudden  the  impious  outcry  of  the 
flesh  is  heard.  Protestantism,  in  the  name  of  God 
and  in  the  name  of  nature,  demands  universal 
marriage.  A  libertine  monk  wants  to  excuse  his 
apostasy  ;  he  can  do  it  only  by  depreciating  a  state 
to  which  he  has  bound  himself  with  an  oath. 
"  Away,"  says  he,  "  with  what  is  called  evangelical 
counsel ;  we  honor  only  the  law.  Now,  the  law  to 
which  those  should  submit  who  have  sufficient  life 
to  give  is  the  law  of  multiplication  promulgated  by 
the  Creator :  Crescite,  multiplicamini.  No  one  has 
understood  the  mysterious  words  of  Christ,  nor 
rightly  seized  the  meaning  of  the  Apostle  ;  and  the 
stupid  admiration  of  the  early  centuries  for  a  state 
which  contradicts  the  will  of  God  and  outrages 
nature  can  only  be  the  effect  of  a  most  pernicious 
fanaticism." 

I  need  not  remark  to  you,  gentlemen,  that  this 
interested  argument  had  for  its  aim  to  recruit 
around  Luther  imitators  and  companions  of  his 
treason.  Priest  and  unfaithful  religious,  he  wished 
to  be  able  to  say  to  other  priests  and  other  relig- 
ious : — Let  us  marry,  my  brethren.  .They  married, 
but  they  did  not  change  the  ordinance  of  perfection. 
The  Church,  tranquil  in  the  midst  of  this  matrimo- 
nial tempest,  was  content  to  inscribe  in  the  chapter 
of  her  doctrine  the  expression  of  her  profound  es- 
teem for  a  state  which  she  knows  to  be  desired  by 
God.  "  If  any  one,"  she  says,  "  maintains  that  the 
conjugal  state  should  be  preferred  to  virginity  and 
celibacy,  and  that  it  is  not  better  and  happier  to  re- 


1 50  Celibacy  and  Virginity, 

main  a  virgin  than  to  marry,  let    him  be  anathe- 
ma." '    And  you  will  see  that  the  Church  is  right. 

II. 

Man,  the  master  of  the  earth,  is  obliged  to  culti- 
vate it.  He  goes  forth,  says  the  Psalmist,  to  his 
work  and  remaineth  till  the  evening:  Rxibit  ho- 
mo ad  opus  suum  et  ad  operationem  suam  usque  ad 
vcsperum?  Under  his  diligent  and  courageous 
hand  the  furrows  open  and  receive  the  fertile 
sowing,  which  shall  come  forth  in  the  spring,  and 
which,  multiplied  a  hundredfold  and  gilded  with 
the  fire  of  the  sun,  shall  be  heaped  up  in  the  garners 
of  the  father  of  the  family.  Man  has  his  duties. 
Who,  then,  shall  contest  his  right  to  reserve  for 
himself  in  his  domain  and  near  his  dwelling  a 
corner  of  earth  less  vulgar  than  the  fertile  plain  ; 
where  bowers  and  parterres,  verdure  and  flowers, 
rejoice  his  eye  and  waft  him  waves  of  perfume  to 
rest  his  weariness  and  thank  him  for  his  labors  ? 
Now,  God  is  a  much  greater  lord  than  man.  He 
has  given  man  the  earth,  but  humanity  remains 
His  domain,  a  domain  of  which  the  culture  has  in- 
creased, since  Christ,  by  the  effusion  of  His  blood, 
has  asserted  His  right  over  it  as  Redeemer.  In 
the  vast  field  of  regenerated  humanity  the  law  of 
reproduction  must  be  fulfilled.  God  works  there 
every  day,  and  to  obtain  a  more  abundant  and 

1  Si  quis  dixerit  statum  conjugalem  anteponendum  esse  statui  virgi- 
nitatis  vel  ccelibatus,  et  non  esse  nielius  ac  beatius  manere  in  virginitate 
aut  ccelibatu,  quam  jungi  matrimonio:  anathema  sit. — Cone.  Trid., 
sess.  24,  can.  lo. 

*  Psalm  ciii.  23. 


Celibacy  and  Virginity.  1 5 1 

more  pure  harvest  of  the  offspring  of  human  life, 
He  has  sanctified,  as  you  have  seen,  the  union  be- 
tween man  and  woman.  Has  he  not  a  right,  like 
the  mere  man  who  is  a  master,  to  reserve  certain 
portions  of  his  domain  ?  And  if  there  is  a  condition 
of  life  which  draws  man  nearer  to  His  holy  majesty 
and  assures  Him  more  perfect  homage,  shall  we 
be  astonished  if  He  desires  and  is  pleased  with  it? 
And  if  it  is  true  that  He  desires  and  is  pleased  with 
it,  must  we  not  behold  in  it  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  ornaments  of  Christian  society  ? 

This  state  of  life  exists,  gentlemen,  the  Church 
has  just  shown  it  to  you  ;  it  is  the  state  of  celibacy 
and  of  virginity. 

Understand  me  well.  There  is  a  shameful  celi- 
bacy, which  I  deliver  up  to  your  contempt  and  to 
the  malediction  of  economists  who  claim  fecund 
lives  for  society ;  it  is  the  celibacy  of  cowards,  to 
whom  marriage  is  only  repugnant  because  they 
wish  to  avoid  its  duties  and  burdens  in  order  to  be 
freer  for  enjoyment.  Reproach  and  cancer  of  so- 
ciety, Rome  of  old  chastised  it  with  the  avenging 
laws  which  relegated  it  to  the  lo\vest  places  at  the 
public  games,  lessened  the  authority  of  its  votes  in 
the  Senate,  deprived  it  of  all  testamentary  inheri- 
tance, confiscated  the  legacies  made  in  its  favor, 
and  assigned  to  married  relatives  its  share  of  in- 
heritances. Nothing  could  discourage  it ;  helped 
by  divorce,  it  accelerated  the  fall  of  the  empire. 
This,  no  doubt,  is  what  it  prepares  for  modern 
society.  But  am  I  not  wrong  in  calling  that  celi- 
bacy which  is,  after  all,  but  selfish  licentiousness? 


152  Celibacy  and  Virginity. 

It  is  not  generally  cold  and  idle  chastity  which  re- 
fuses marriage,  but  it  is  the  inexcusable  immoral- 
ity of  those  wretches  who  profess  to  multiply  and 
vary  their  pleasures  without  wearing  chains.  If 
they  abstain  by  chance  from  troubling  families, 
or  from  seducing  virtue,  they  do  not  fail  to  publish 
their  scandalous  alliances,  until,  wearied  with  ad- 
ventures, exhausted  with  debauchery,  they  fall 
under  the  yoke  of  some  servant-woman,  who  will 
pay  with  her  utmost  compliance  for  the  inheri- 
tance she  covets.  Since  human  laws  dare  not 
touch  these  eunuchs  of  vice,  let  them  be  crushed 
by  your  contempt ;  they  well  deserve  it. 

Together  with  shameful  celibacy,  I  give  up  to 
you  that  morose  virginity  which  neither  pardons 
nature  for  having  ill-favored  it,  nor  fortune  for 
having  refused  it  its  bounties,  nor  the  world  for 
having  condemned  it,  by  its  indifference  or  its  scorn, 
to  perpetual  solitude.  Sad  heritage  of  decayed 
old  maids,  whose  eager  desires  for  matrimony 
change  with  age  into  malicious  regrets.  In  their 
unspotted  bodies  their  soured  souls  only  think 
of  revenging  on  all  beauty,  all  virtue,  all  happi- 
ness, the  forced  celibacy  which  they  consider  a 
reproach.  Eager  manufacturers  of  slander,  they 
give  no  rest  to  their  venomous  tongues  when  it 
is  a  question  of  injuring  the  best  reputations. 
Flowers  without  perfume,  lamps  without  oil,  God, 
Who  has  not  desired  them,  has  promised  to  say  to 
them  one  day  :  "  I  know  you  not :  "  Nescio  vos. ' 

The  virgins  whom  God  desires,  whom  He  knows 

1  St.  Matt.  xxv.  12. 


Celibacy  and  Virginity.  153 

and  loves,  are  those  whom  He  has  touched  with 
His  grace,  and  who,  responding  to  His  loving  ad- 
vances by  a  free  choice,  have  become  copies  of 
His  perfection,  angels  of  earth,  the  spouses  of 
Christ,  the  living  Gospel. 

You  ask  me  how  voluntary  sterility  can  be  a 
copy  of  the  perfection  of  God.  The  life  of  God  is 
infinitely  fecund.  From  Him  all  beings  come 
forth,  and  in  the  mystery  of  His  essence  He  gives 
Himself  ineffable  family  joy,  without  multiplying 
His  nature.  They  are  three :  the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  these  three  are  one- 
eternal  fecundity,  which  can  neither  do  without 
nor  weary  of  producing ;  inherent  fecundity,  which 
keeps  its  fruit  within  itself.  All  that  is  true,  but 
the  fecundity  of  God  is  so  pure  that  no  created  fe- 
cundity can  represent  it.  I  said  to  you  lately, 
when  chanting  the  wonders  of  the  divine  proces- 
sion :  "  The  immaculate  life  of  God  derives  from 
itself  the  power  of  propagating  itself ;  nothing 
helps  it,  nothing  fades  it ;  it  conceives  without 
movement,  it  brings  forth  without  labor,  it  loves 
without  trouble;  its  tranquil  procession  perfects 
its  beatitude  without  affecting  its  repose ;  accord- 
ing to  the  words  of  St.  Gregory  Nazianzen,  it  is 
the  most  beautiful  and  the  first  of  virgins  :  Prima 
virgo  est  sane t a  Trinitas. " 

Who  can  reproduce  here  below  this  chaste  mys- 
tery?— The  most  charming  flowers  of  humanity, 
like  the  most  charming  flowers  of  the  field,  cannot 
bear  fruit  without  losing  their  virginity.  One 

1  Carmen  in  Laudem  Virginitatis,  i.,  v.  20, 


1 54  Celibacy  and  Virginity. 

only  creature  in  all  time  is  called  "  the  mother  most 
admirable  "  and  "  the  virgin  most  pure."  But  God 
has  only  once  performed  this  miracle.  In  the  rest 
of  humanity,  He  has,  as  it  were,  divided  in  two 
the  copies  of  His  perfection.  To  some  He  has 
given  the  honor  of  representing  His  fecundity,  to 
others  the  honor  of  representing  His  adorable  pur- 
ity. If  those  who  bear  children  are  proud  to  say, 
"God  is  father,"  those  who  renounce  terrestrial 
marriages,  so  as  to  keep  inviolate  the  treasure  of 
their  chastity,  may  also  be  proud  to  say,  "  God  is 
virgin;  the  Holy  Trinity  is  the  first  of  virgins:" 
Prima  virgo  cst  sancta  Trinitas, 

Yes,  gentlemen,  God  is  virgin,  and  to  virgins  He 
reserves  a  more  profound  vision  of  His  essence 
and  of  His  life,  and  from  virgins  He  expects  a 
more  perfect  praise  of  His  infinite  beauty.  The 
resplendent  spirits  next  His  throne  are  virgins. 
Their  pure  essences  are  not  allied  among  them- 
selves to  multiply  life,  but  they  altogether  are  sat- 
isfied with  the  contemplation  of  the  Word,  the 
fruit  of  the  life  of  God,  and  receive  an  immensity 
of  light  from  the  Holy  Trinity,  Whose  purity  they 
imitate  !  How  far  removed  from  th^se  pure  spirits 
are  those  whose  faded  flesh  enchains  the  soul  with 
the  cares  of  this  present  life  !  Heaven  is  not  re- 
fused to  them,  but  they  reach  it  only  by  slow  steps, 
like  that  crawling  animal  which  carries  with  it  the 
weight  of  its  house.  Virginity,  on  the  contrary, 
has  wings  which  bear  it  towards  the  celestial  re- 
gions, where  the  soul,  free  and  mistress  of  itself, 
imitates  the  life  of  the  angels. 


Celibacy  and  Virginity.  155 

It  appears  that  the  heathen  themselves  had 
some  idea  of  this  wonder.  One  of  them,  express- 
ing the  thought  of  a  celebrated  lawyer,  said  these 
remarkable  words :  "  Celibacy  and  a  spiritual 
man  mean  one  and  the  same  thing.  Marriage  di- 
vides a  man  by  scattering  him  ;  continence  gathers 
him  up  and  brings  him  back  to  unity." '  After 
the  divine  life  there  is  nothing  more  one  than  the 
angelic  life  ;  after  the  angelic  life  there  is  noth- 
ing more  one  than  the  virginal  life.  In  this  life, 
the  indivisible  soul  draws  towards  itself  the  divis- 
ible flesh,  as  if  to  shape  it  to  its  chaste  simplicity, 
in  order  to  remain  fixed  in  contemplation,  in  love, 
and  in  the  worship  of  divine  things.  Freed  by 
chastity  from  the  appetites  and  desires  of  the  flesh, 
the  soul,  says  St.  Thomas,  is  better  disposed  for 
intellectual  work.  *  The  absence  of  corruption  en- 
ables it  to  live  close  to  incorruptibility :  Incor- 
ruptio  facit  csse  proxiinuni  Deo  ;  *  and  God  promises 
to  it  the  vision  of  divine  mysteries :  Beati  mun- 
do  corde,  quoniam  ipsi  Dctim  videbunt. 4 

The  virginal  soul,  in  fact,  sees  God  everywhere  ; 
not  only  in  eternal  principles,  which  appear  more 
clear  to  it,  through  the  luminous  transparency 
which  chastity  gives  to  them  ;  not  only  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  faith,  upon  which  it  can  meditate  at  leis- 

1  Cajus  coelibes  dixit  quasi  coelites  et  ccelestes,  quod  onere  gravissi- 
mo  vacent  nuptiarum ;  per  cominentiam  quippe  colligimur  et  redi- 
gimur  in  unum,  a  quo  in  multa  defluximus.—  Qnintilian,  lib.  i.,  cap.  x. 

*  Castitas  maxime  disponit  ad  perfectionem  operationis  intellectu- 
alis. — Snmm.  ThfoL,  I.  II.  P.  qusest.  15,  a.  3. 

3  Wis.  vi.  20. 
St.  Matt.  v.  8. 


1 56  Celibacy  and  Virginity. 

ure  ;  but  in  all  creatures,  who  have  no  other  charm 
in  its  eyes,  purified  from  all  earthly  covetousness, 
except  that  they  represent  the  infinite  perfections 
of  the  Creator.  More  rejoiced  than  others  by  the 
vision  of  God,  the  virginal  soul  feels  more  capti- 
vated with  a  greater  love  for  Him  ;  and  this  love, 
freed  from  the  attachments,  preoccupations,  and 
troubles  of  life,  which  entangle,  vulgarize,  and 
weigh  down  conjugal  life,  is  always  ready  to  burst 
forth  into  praises.  To  see,  to  love,  to  praise  God, 
is  not  that  the  angelical  life?  This  was  neces- 
sary for  our  human  world  since  a  God  has  visited 
it.  "  When  the  Son  of  God  came  on  earth,"  writes 
St.  Jerome  to  his  dear  virgin  Eustochia,  "  He 
made  for  Himself  a  special  family;  and  as  He  had 
angels  for  adorers  in  heaven,  He  wished  also  to 
have  angels  for  servants  here  below."  ' 

Better  still.  The  virgins  who  have  despised  the 
alliance  of  men  should  have  in  Christian  society  a 
still  higher  destiny  than  to  serve  the  God  Whose 
angels  they  are.  At  least  their  service  is  elevated 
by  an  august  title  which  opens  to  them  the  gates 
of  the  mysterious  regions  of  the  spiritual  life  in 
which  God  makes  Himself  intimately  known. 
The  virgin  serves  Christ  with  the  title  of  the  privi- 
leged spouse.  "  The  King  of  kings,"  says  the 
Church,  "  hath  desired  her  beauty  :"  Concupiscet 
rex  decorem  tuum. a  She  on  her  part,  insensible 

1  Statim  ut  Filius  Dei  ingressus  est  super  terram  novam  sibi  fami- 
liam  instituit,  ut  qui  ab  angelis  adorabatur  in  ccelo,  haberet  angelos  et 
in  terris. — Epist.  xi.  ad  Euslochiam. 

1  Ps.  xliv.  12. 


Celibacy  and  Virginity.  157 

to  the  attractions  of  creatures,  has  better  under- 
stood the  charms  of  the  God  humiliated,  Who  has 
sought  her.  They  have  met  in  solitary  and  quiet 
regions,  where  no  noise  of  earth  is  heard.  And 
Christ  has  said:  Veni,  elect  a  mea :  "Come  My 
chosen  one !  "  And  the  virgin  has  exclaimed  : 
"  I  have  despised  the  world  and  the  vain  orna- 
ments of  the  age  for  the  love  of  my  Master,  Jesus 
Christ.  I  have  seen  Him,  I  have  loved  Him,  I  have 
confidence  in  Him,  I  have  chosen  Him  for  my 
heritage." '  The  union  is  complete. 

Nuptials  of  the  flesh,  how  insignificant  you  are 
beside  these  spiritual  nuptials  !  Here,  also,  there 
are  vows.  The  virgin,  in  receiving  the  sacred 
veil,  protests  her  humble  and  sincere  submission 
to  the  divine  Spouse  Whom  she  has  chosen. a 
Married  to  the  Eternal  Bridegroom,  she  cannot 
break  her  vow  without  becoming  an  adulteress,  and 
worthy  of  eternal  death  :  Adultcrium  perpctrat 
et  ancilla  mortis  cfficitur. 3  But  in  exchange  for 
her  fidelity,  the  Celestial  Spouse  covers  her  with 
His  protection,  lavishes  on  her  His  graces,  and  re- 
serves for  her  the  intimate  confidences  of  His  love. 
Thanks  to  these  confidences,  she  knows  secrets 

1  Regnum  mundi   et   omnem    ornatum   sasculi   contempsi,  propter 
amorem    Domini   mei  Jesu  Christi,  quern   vidi,  quern   amavi,  in  quern 
credidi,  quern  dilexi.—  Response  in  the  Office  of  Virgins. 

2  Accipe  velamen  sacrum,  quo  cognoscaris  mundum  contempsisse, 
et  te  Christo  Jesu  veracitcr  humiliterque  toto  corde  sponsam  in  per- 
petuum  subdidisse. 

3  Qus;  se  spopondit  Christo,  et  sanctum  velamen  accepit,  jam  nupsit, 
jam  immortali  juncta  est  viro,  et  jam  si  voluerit  nubere  communi  lege, 
adulterium  perpetrat,  et  ancilla  mortis  efficitur. --S.  Ambrose,  ad  vir- 
ginem  lapsam. 


158  Celibacy  and  Virginity. 

which  only  the  chaste  soul  can  receive  and  under- 
stand of  the  perfections  of  God,  of  the  mysteries 
of  the  faith,  of  the  merit  of  virtue,  of  the  progress 
of  the  spiritual  life. 

And  now,  gentlemen,  behold  the  noble  fruit  of 
these  divine  nuptials  :  the  virgin,  the  confidant  of 
the  intimate  word  of  Christ,  her  spouse,  becomes 
His  exterior  word,  His  living  Gospel.  Christ  has 
spoken  to  the  world,  not  only  to  reveal  to  it  the 
mysteries  which  reason  can  neither  know  nor  un- 
derstand by  its  own  power,  but  also  to  give  it  the 
measure  of  perfection  to  which  human  life  can  at- 
tain. The  Gospel,  with  its  precepts  and  counsels, 
is  the  code  of  this  perfection. 

It  is  not  easily  found  among  those  who  are  en- 
tangled in  the  bonds  of  married  life.  The  flesh 
and  the  spirit  are  at  continual  war  with  them,  and 
it  is  a  difficult  task  to  make  the  subdued  flesh  walk 
in  the  way  of  the  spirit.  The  Christian  husband 
and  wife  must  never  lose  sight  of  the  dignity  to 
which  they  have  been  raised  by  the  grace  of  their 
spiritual  birth  and  the  infusion  of  the  divine  life. 
It  is  no  easy  task  to  keep  within  bounds,  and  much 
time  is  required  to  subject  the  tyranny  of  the 
senses  to  reason.  When  a  married  couple  succeed 
in  establishing  the  dominion  of  reason  over  the 
senses,  they  should  try  to  disengage  their  hearts 
and  repair  the  injustice  they  may  have  done  to 
the  holy  love  of  God,  which  is  too  often  forgotten 
in  an  earthly  love. 

Parents  have  to  discharge  the  duties  of  a  provi- 
dence for  their  children.  Too  weak  for  this  great 


Celibacy  and  Virginity.  \  59 

function,  they  bend  under  the  weight  of  the  pre- 
occupations and  cares  on  which  the  existence  and 
fate  of  the  family  depend,  and  the}-  are  no  longer 
able  to  raise  the  standard  of  their  spiritual  life  as 
high  as  they  desire.  Marriage  is  certainly  an  honor- 
able and  a  holy  state,  because  God  has  blessed  it; 
but  those  who  wish  to  live  the  married  life  of 
Christians  must  not  conceal  from  themselves  that 
perfection  encounters  a  thousand  obstacles,  and 
that  it  is  rare  in  it.  It  is  doing  much  to  walk  up- 
rightly in  the  ordinary  way  of  the  commandments. 
Virginity,  on  the  contrary,  goes  beyond  pre- 
cepts, and  enters  in  the  beginning  through  the 
special  door  of  the  evangelical  counsels.  And  to 
protect  as  well  as  to  expand  it,  it  calls  to  its  aid 
a  number  of  virtues  which  render  it  more  beauti- 
ful and  charming.  There  happens  in  the  virginal 
life  something  analogous  to  the  physiological 
phenomenon  remarked  in  those  flowers  which 
man  makes  sterile  in  order  to  increase  their  beau- 
ty. Here,  culture  transforms  the  organs  of  fecun- 
dity into  sparkling  petals  and  delicious  perfume ; 
there,  under  the  influence  of  grace,  all  that  chastity 
retrenches  from  the  life  of  sense  it  adds  to  the 
development  of  virtue.  These  virtues  are  born, 
as  it  were  spontaneously,  from  the  reserves  of 
divine  grace  which  the  chaste  soul  accumulates  in 
an  inviolate  flesh.  Humility,  modesty,  recollec- 
tion, contempt  of  worldly  goods,  voluntary  poverty  ? 
abnegation,  obedience,  mortification,  group  around 
virginity  to  defend  it  and  to  increase  its  splendor. 
Religion  often  strengthens  these  virtues  by  vows 


160  Celibacy  and  Virginity. 

which  make  of  the  virginal  life  one  perpetual  holo- 
caust. Briefly,  the  fulfilment  of  divine  precepts  is 
crowned  in  the  state  of  celibacy  and  virginity  by 
the  practice  of  the  evangelical  counsels.  This 
state  is  a  radiant  expression  of  that  perfection 
taught  by  the  Saviour  ;  I  have  well  called  it  His 
living  Gospel. 

After  this,  I  am  not  astonished  at  the  enthusiasm 
with  which  a  pious  admirer  of  this  noble  and  holy 
state  exclaims  :  "  The  life  of  the  soul  is  as  much 
above  the  life  of  the  flesh  as  the  immense  heaven 
is  above  our  narrow  planet,  as  the  stability  of  the 
blessed  is  above  our  fleeting  existence  ;  as  God  is 
above  man,  so  is  virginity  above  marriage.  "  Vir- 
ginity, viewed  in  this  light,  you  will  agree  with 
me,  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  ornaments  of  Chris- 
tian society.  To  desire  to  suppress  it  for  the 
benefit  of  what  are  called  fecund  lives,  is,  —  pardon 
the  comparison,  —  as  if  it  were  proposed  to  devas- 
tate around  a  magnificent  palace  the  parterres,  the 
lawns,  and  the  bowers,  in  order  to  replace  them 
by  a  field  of  potatoes,  which  could  very  well  grow 
elsewhere. 

Besides,  you  must  not  think  virginity  is  a  use- 
less ornament  in  the  world.  There  is  more  than 
one  way  of  being  useful,  and  the  service  of  the 
multiplication  of  species  can  be  largely  compen- 

v  ~p<><plpuuaa  fdftau  ftioruiu 


Kai  %0<>yot;  oupavos  eopbt;^  offov  fitf'iroto  plovroq 
'EffTTjwq  naxdpsfffftV)  offov  #£ot  avfipos  dpeiws. 
S.  Greg.  Naz.,  op.  cit.,  v.  205-208, 


Celibacy  and  Virginity.  161 

sated  in  society  by  other  domestic  and  public 
services.  Time  does  not  permit  me  to  give  to  this 
interesting  consideration  all  the  development  it 
would  bear.  I  hope,  however,  to  say  sufficient  to 
justify  the  definition  of  the  Church  and  to  complete 
the  apology  which  I  have  undertaken.  Let  us 
confine  ourselves  to  notice  three  great  social  bene- 
fits of  virginity :  the  service  of  example,  the 
service  of  prayer,  the  service  of  devotedness. 

There  is  a  terrible  struggle  in  our  fallen  nature 
between  the  flesh  and  the  spirit ;  it  can  only  ter- 
minate to  our  honor  by  the  triumph  of  the  spirit. 
Now,  this  triumph  is  nowhere  more  complete  than 
in  the  virginal  life.  Marriage  is  a  concession 
made  to  the  lower  part  of  ourselves ;  virginity  will 
grant  nothing.  "  Heroic  enterprise  !  "  says  the 
great  Chrysostom,  "  I  know  the  difficulties  and 
violence  of  the  combat,  and  the  heavy  burden  of 
this  warfare  without  truce  and  without  mercy.  It 
requires  a  courageous  and  strong  soul,  a  heart  full 
of  aversion  for  voluptuousness.  Dust  and  ashes, 
we  have  resolved  to  equal  those  who  crowd  yonder 
the  celestial  courts.  It  is  mortality  which  enters 
into  combat  with  immortality."1  Sublime  strug- 
gle, at  the  end  of  which  virginity  becomes  the 

1  0*8a  TTJV  Stav  roD  Ttpaf/iaTos,  <>*$a.  raiv  nj'ovtaij.drtav  TOVTWS 
TOV  TOVOV,  olda  TOO  itoJLlfUHi  TO  fiapv.  $tAi>zs{yoo  TJVC)?  xa}  ft'.atas 

xa}  iiacovcvai)p£vi)G zarA  TU>V  txtBofu&v 8ti  <!'i>/rts 'H-f^xa:. 

6  ff-oSuq  Tots  lv  oupayai  dtaTpi6nuff'.y  IziffovffOa'.  ythiystzst,  xa\ 
37  (pffopd  ~p<js  Trt»  dyOapffia-s  ry>  SjuU^Ot  zflsTo. — S.  Chrys., 
De  Virginitate,  n.  27. 


1 62  Celibacy  and  Virginity. 

light  of  the  world :  Virginitas  est  splendor. l  To 
those  who  endure  the  ardent  conflicts  of  which 
the  Apostle  complains,  it  teaches  that  there  is  in 
the  Christian  soul  sufficient  strength  and  sufficient 
grace  to  discipline  and  to  subdue  the  life  of  sense. 
In  doing  more  than  God  exacts,  it  exalts  the  au- 
thority and  wisdom  of  His  commandments ;  and  its 
example  is,  for  cowardly  souls,  a  living  censure, 
for  willing  souls,  a  powerful  inducement.  Courage  ! 
it  says  to  them  ;  you  shall  have  sufficient  strength 
to  regulate  the  pleasure  which  God  permits,  be- 
cause I  have  severed  myself  from  it  forever.  Be- 
lieve me,  it'  is  no  small  matter  for  a  world  tor- 
mented by  passion  to  have  constantly  before  its 
eyes  the  personification  of.  the  triumph  of  the 
spirit  over  the  flesh. 

Virginity  enters  into  the  noble  career  ot  social 
service  in  a  more  active  manner  by  prayer.  Everv 
reasonable  creature  is  obliged  to  pray,  the  Chris- 
tian more  than  any  other.  But,  in  order  to  obtain 
through  this  act  a  perfection  which  shall  draw  it 
nearer  to  His  infinite  majesty,  God  has  desired 
that  certain  souls  should  make  prayer  their  work 
and  their  profession.  It  is  a  way  of  lifting  one's 
self  up  to  Him,  of  contemplating  His  perfections, 
of  speaking  to  Him,  of  laying  bare  to  His  infinite 
pity  the  miseries  of  nature,  of  moving  Him  to 
mercy  and  forcing  Him  to  pacific  contract  with 
His  creature ;  it  is  supereminently  a  state  of  the 

1  Conjugium  est  indulgentia  libidini  concessa;  virginitas  autem 
splendor:  /'«/!/»-  <7w^y<M/jHj  ~a.0»uc,  dyveta  di  Iafarp6n)f. — S. 
Naz.,  Carm.  III.,  Exhortat.  ad  Firgines,  v.  20. 


Celibacy  and  Virginity.  163 

Christian  soul  in  which  is  revealed  so  admirable 
an  elevation  of  the  spirit ;  such  a  deep  tenderness 
of  heart ;  such  a  power  of  remembrance,  of  sight, 
of  sentiment,  of  expression,  of  accents  unknown  to 
the  noblest  and  greatest  arts ;  a  state,  in  short, 
which  places  man  so  near  God,  God  so  near  man, 
that  it  must  be  acknowledged  to  be  the  divine  art 
par  excellence — ars  dimnior.  Now,  the  virgin  pos- 
sesses better  than  any  one  the  secrets  of  this  divine 
art,  because,  having  chosen  God  for  her  portion, 
she  sees  Him  nearer  and  lives  in  His  intimacy. 
Besides,  from  the  height  of  her  life,  freed  from  the 
solicitudes  and  tribulations  of  the  age,  she  per- 
ceives what  is  wanting  in  the  worship  of  God 
among  the  crowd  of  those  whose  homage  He 
awaits ;  powerlessness,  negligence,  forgetfulness, 
proud  determination  to  calculate  only  on  human 
effort,  all  these  religious  disorders  touch  her  deep- 
ly, and  she  feels  the  need  of  offering  to  her  di- 
vine Spouse  compensations  drawn  from  her  own 
life.  She  multiplies  therefore  the  loving  emotions 
of  her  heart  and  the  chaste  supplications  of  her 
lips,  in  order  that  society  may  always  have  the 
same  number  of  benefits,  because,  thanks  to  her 
devotedness,  God  shall  always  have  the  same  quan- 
tity of  prayers. 

I  have  just  named  devotedness,  but  you  are  not 
ignorant  of  that  source  of  the  most  useful  and 
most  noble  services  that  men  can  render  to  each 
other  in  social  life.  Every  man,  every  Christian, 
is  capable  of  devotedness.  But  the  faculty  of  de- 
voting one's  self  is  for  the  most  part  limited,  in 


164  Celibacy  and  Virginity. 

the  different  conditions  of  life,  by  the  duties  which 
retain  the  heart  beside  those  whom  it  loves,  and 
prevent  its  casting  itself  blindly  and  without  rea- 
son into  the  way  of  sacrifice.  We  are  devoted 
to  our  own ;  but  to  forget  our  own,  to  be  devoted 
to  strangers,  is  more  than  human  nature  can  do. 
I  see  self-sacrifice  become  illustrious  from  time 
to  time  by  heroic  acts ;  it  cannot  make  a  habit  nor 
a  profession  of  them.  Virginity  alone  gives  it 
this  strange  power.  By  renouncing  earthly  mar- 
riage, the  virgin  frees  herself  from  the  servitude 
of  flesh  and  blood,  and  from  those  imperious  family 
affections  which  gauge  generosity  of  heart  and 
impose  on  it  certain  reservations.  All  belongs  to 
her,  all  within  her  is  free.  To  all  the  unfortunate, 
to  all  miseries  which  ask  for  consolation  and  help, 
to  all  public  misfortunes,  to  all  the  great  causes 
for  which  sacrifice  must  be  made,  she  is  always 
ready  to  say  :  "  Here  I  am  :  "  Ecce  adsum. 

Now,  gentlemen,  you  will  understand  better 
why  the  Church  asks  from  her  priests  celibacy. 
For  a  chosen  ministry,  there  must  be  a  chosen 
state.  The  priest,  invested  with  the  highest  of 
dignities,  the  official  confidant  of  God  and  the 
minister  of  His  grace,  should  belong  entirely  to 
Him.  The  less  right  the  creature  has  to. him, 
the  more  he  is  a  man  of  God ;  the  more  he  is  a 
man  of  God,  the  more  should  he  resemble  the 
angels,  whom  Scripture  calls  the  ministers  of  the 
Most  High.  Sacred  captain  of  the  Christian  ar- 
my, the  more  victories  he  can  show,  the  more 
fitted  is  he  to  regulate  the  combat  maintained 


Celibacy  and  Virginity.  165 

against  the  passions  of  the  flesh  ;  and  the  absolute 
triumph  of  spirit  in  his  virgin  body  speaks  more 
eloquently  than  all  sermons.  Precentor  of  the 
Christian  world,  he  requires  all  his  time,  all  his 
attention,  and  all  his  heart  to  keep  himself  in  com- 
munion with  God.  It  is  his  office  to  immolate  a  di- 
vine victim,  and  no  cares  of  married  life  must  be 
allowed  to  interfere  with  that  duty.  Confidant  of 
sinners,  he  receives  their  confessions  more  freely 
in  a  virginal  soul  whose  secrets  no  intimate  love 
fathoms.  Minister  of  Providence,  he  is  not  tempt- 
ed, if  he  is  alone,  to  economize,  from  the  share  of 
the  unfortunate,  a  patrimony  for  a  family.  Apos- 
tle of  truth,  he  can  carry  it  from  day  to  day,  from 
one  place  to  another,  and  even  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth,  if  he  has  no  other  care  than  changing  only 
his  own  place  of  abode.  Defender  of  a  holy  doc- 
trine, he  might  yield  to  the  threats  of  persecutors, 
to  save  the  liberty  and  the  life  of  the  wife  who 
should  be  one  flesh  with  him,  the  children  to  whom 
he  should  have  given  his  heart  with  his  blood; 
virgin,  he  can  say  without  hesitation  to  tyrants  : 
Take  my  liberty,  take  my  life  ;  you  shall  not  have 
my  faith  ! 

Understand,  once  again,  why  the  Church  lov- 
ingly cultivates  virgins.  They  are  the  sacred 
tithe  of  her  most  pure  possessions  which  she  offers 
to  Christ,  her  Spouse ;  they  are  the  supreme  re- 
source of  her  heart  desolated  by  human  prevarica- 
tions. God  is  much  forgotten  and  grievously 
offended  in  the  world,  but  at  least  the  Church 
has  raised  in  the  state  of  virginity  a  holy  moun- 


1 66  Celibacy  and  Virginity, 

tain,  a  fertile  mountain,  a  mountain  where  grace 
abounds,  a  mountain  where  God  is  pleased  to 
dwell :  mons  Dei,  mons  pinguis,  mons  coagulatus,  mons 
in  quo  beneplacitum  cst  Deo  Jiabitare  in  eo. '  From 
it  He  scatters  the  greater  part  ot  the  gifts  which 
He  bestows  on  Christian  society,  to  comfort  it  in 
the  daily  struggles  between  good  and  evil ;  from 
it  ascends  the  perpetual  miserere  which  stays  the 
divine  anger  on  its  way.  Without  the  compen- 
sations of  virginal  prayers  social  life  would  be 
continually  harassed  by  the  visitations  of  the  jus- 
tice of  God. 

But  not  only  do  virgins  whom  the  Church  loves 
and  nurtures  protect  us  from  the  justice  of  God, 
they  are  the  most  active  and  devoted  instruments 
of  His  mercy.  The  ignorant,  the  insane,  the  or- 
phan, the  aged,  the  poor,  the  sick,  the  infirm,  the 
incurable,  find  in  them  mothers,  daughters,  sisters, 
ever  ready  to  render  them  the  most  delicate  and 
the  most  loathsome  service.  Epidemics  and  con- 
tagious diseases  attract  them.  They  hasten  to 
them  with  a  free  and  joyous  heart,  for  no  despairing 
voice  cries  behind  them  :  Do  not  go  there  ; — and 
the  voice  of  the  Spouse  Whom  they  have  chosen, 
and  Who  is  incarnate  in  the  unfortunate,  says  to 
them  :  Come  unto  Me. 

They  are  not  all  in  convents,  these  sweet  moth- 
ers of  human  miseries.  They  are  in  many  fami- 
lies whom  misfortune  has  visited.  You  have 
met  them,  and  perhaps  you  have  regarded  them 
with  disdainful  compassion.  You  were  to  blame. 

1   Ps.  Ixvii. 


Celibacy  and  Virginity.  167 

All  are  not,  as  you  think,  victims  disgraced  by  na- 
ture and  by  fortune.  There  are  those  who  have 
had  a  glimpse  of  the  joys  of  a  happy  union,  and 
the  sweets  of  the  religious  life  :  but  they  have  im- 
molated their  hopes  and  their  desires  to  con- 
secrate themselves  to  the  obscure  tasks  in  which 
their  life  is  consumed.  I  cannot  better  describe 
them  than  by  copying  a  great  writer  who  has 
personally  witnessed  their  devotion.  '  "  For  the 
love  of  God,  they  have  refused  both  the  love  of 
man  and  even  the  service  of  God ;  by  charity, 
they  have  separated  themselves  from  the  joys  of 
charity.  They  have  not  fully  either  the  peace  of 
the  cloister,  nor  the  care  of  the  poor,  nor  apostle- 
ship  in  the  world,  and  their  great  heart  has  known 
how  to  deprive  itself  of  all  that  is  great  and  per- 
fect. They  have  enclosed  their  lives  in  little 
duties :  supports  of  aged  parents  who  load  them 
with  their  exactions  ;  servants  of  brothers  and  sis- 
ters afflicted  in  the  loss  of  the  dear  one  of  their 
life ;  mothers  of  orphans,  they  replace  the  absent 
ones,  whom  selfishness  or  death  has  carried-  off, 
giving  themselves  entirely  and  receiving  only  in 
part.  Youth,  liberty,  future,  they  have  sacrificed 
all !  Oh  !  widowed  virgins,  religious  without  veil, 
spouses  without  rights,  mothers  without  the  name, 
blessed  are  ye  !  The  despising  voice  of  the  world 
calls  you  old  maids,  but  you  shall  be  proud  and 
well  avenged  when,  in  presence  of  the  whole  world, 
Christ  shall  open  to  you  His  arms  and  shall  say  : 
Veni  sponsa  mca  :  Come,  My  spouse !  " 

1  Louis  Veuillot,     Qa  et  la. 


1  68  Celibacy  and  Virginity. 

Such  is  virginity.  If  you  have  understood  the 
grandeur  of  this  holy  state,  you  will  not  ask  me 
to  reply  to  the  insipid  considerations  of  economy 
and  to  the  unjust  recriminations  of  those  who  ac- 
cuse virgins  of  diminishing  social  life,  and  of  out- 
raging nature.  '  For  the  rest,  you  will  find  in  the 
apology  you  have  just  heard  all  the  elements  of  a 
refutation,  and  if  you  will  allow  your  good  sense 
to  speak,  it  will  say  to  you  with  Gregory  of  Nazi- 
anzen  :  Nobis  fas  non  est  probrum  inf  under  e  vir- 
ginitati;  "  we  are  not  permitted  to  cast  opprobrium 
on  virginity."  " 

But  your  Christian  souls  will  not  be  satisfied 
with  abstaining  from  outrage  ;  with  the  Church 
they  will  sing  this  beautiful  canticle  of  Wisdom  : 
"  O  how  beautiful  is  the  chaste  generation  with 
glory  :  for  the  memory  thereof  is  immortal  :  be- 
cause it  is  known  both  with  God  and  with  men." 
But,  also,  marriage  is  only  a  condition  of  our  pass- 
ing life  ;  virginity  is  an  eternal  state,  like  the  purity 
of  the  angels,  which  it  imitates  in  this  world  and 
in  heaven.  Neque  nubent,  neque  nubentur,  sed  ernnt 
sicut  angeli  Dei  in  coelo.  4 


1  Cf.  Index  at  the  end  of  the  volume. 
9  'HjJLtv  d\>fj  Oi<uq  iariv  iler/etyy 


S.  Greg.,  Carm.  II.,  Pr&cepta  ad  Virgines,  v.  507-508. 

3  O  quam  pulchra  est  casta  generatio  cum  claritate  !     Immortalis 
est  enim  memoria  illius  :  quoniam  apud  Deum  nota  est  et  apud  homi- 
nes. —  Wis.  iv.  I. 

4  They  shall  neither  marry  nor  be  married  :  but  shall  be  as  angels 
of  God  in  heaven.  —  St.  Matt.  xxii.  30. 


INDEX 

OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  ERRORS  CONTRARY  TO  THE 
DOGMAS  SET  FORTH  IN  THIS  VOLUME. 


CONFERENCE  I. 

(See  the  first  part:     Sanctity  of  marriage  in  the  order  of  nature.) 

THE  ancient  heretics,  Simon,  Saturninus,  the 
Gnostics,  taught  that  marriage  had  not  beeji  insti- 
tuted by  God,  and  considered  it  a  shameful  thing. 
The  Manicheans,  according  to  their  system,  which 
attributed  the  creation  of  bodies  to  the  evil  spirit, 
maintained  that  the  procreation  of  children  was 
suggested  by  the  demon,  and  only  served  to  ex- 
tend his  empire.  They  thus  condemned  marriage 
as  an  absolutely  bad  institution. 

"  Man,  "  said  Manes,  in  his  conference  with 
Archelaus,  Bishop  of  Charcar,  "  man  cannot  be 
the  work  of  God,  because  intemperance,  passion, 
and  fornication  preside  over  his  generation."  In 
Manicheism  the  elect  or  perfect  renounced  mar- 
riage. If  they  permitted  it  to  the  imperfect,  it  was 
with  the  counsel  to  hinder  generation.  The  Eu- 
stut/iians,  Enclitics,  Priscilliamsts,  Albigenscs,  Lol- 
lards, offshoots  of  Manicheism,  taught  that  mar- 
riage is  only  a  sworn  prostitution,  to  avoid  which 


169 


1 70  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

they  gave  themselves  up  to  the  most  abominable 
promiscuousness. 

The  greater  part  of  these  heretics  have  been 
refuted  by  St.  Irenseus,  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
Tertullian,  Origen,  St.  Epiphanius,  St.  Augustine, 
Theodoret,  and  other  writers. 

The  Council  of  Gangra  (341)  condemns  those 
who  blame  marriage  and  embrace  virginity,  not 
for  the  excellence  of  this  virtue,  but  because  they 
consider  marriage  evil.  "  We  admire  virginity," 
say  the  Fathers  of  the  Council,  "  and  also  separa- 
tion from  the  world,  provided  they  are  joined  to 
modesty  and  humility  ;  but  we  also  respect  mar- 
riage and  desire  that  all  that  is  conformable  to 
Holy  Scripture  should  be  practised." 

( See  the  second  part :     The  sacrament. ) 

Protestantism  does  not  deny  the  divine  institu- 
tion of  marriage,  but  excludes  it  from  the  number 
of  the  sacraments.  Luther  saw  in  it  neither  a 
sacred  sign  nor  the  promise  of  grace  (Lib.  de 
Captii'itate  Babylon :  cap.  De  Matrimonio\  Calvin 
affirms  that  there  is  no  more  sacrament  in  marriage 
than  in  the  practice  of  the  most  vulgar  trades  : 
Non  magis  sacrament i  ratio  matrimonio  convcnit 
quam  agricultures,  aut  tonstrince,  ant  sutoria  arti 
(Lib.  iv.  Irtstitut.,  cap.  xix.,  §  34).  Mflanchthon  and 
Khemnitz  appear  to  have  been  attached  to  the 
opinion  of  Durand,  who  asserts  that  marriage  can- 
not be  strictly  called  a  sacrament,  but  only  in  an 
equivocal  manner.  The  theory  of  Durand  is  of 
small  importance  compared  with  the  teaching  of 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  \  7 1 

all  theologians  and  the  constant  tradition  of  the 
Church. 

Bergier  makes  this  judicious  remark  with  regard 
to  the  Protestant  doctrine  :  "  Since  it  has  pleased 
the  Protestants  to  decide  that  sacraments  do  not 
produce  by  themselves  sanctifying  grace  in  the 
souls  of  those  who  receive  them,  that  all  their 
effect  consists  in  exacting  faith,  which  alone  justi- 
fies, we  do  not  see  why  they  exclude  marriage 
from  the  number  of  the  sacraments.  Is  this  cere- 
mony less  fitted  to  excite  faith  in  the  faithful  than 
Baptism  or  the  Lord's  Supper?  The  mutual  prom- 
ises which  the  married  pair  make  of  an  inviolable 
fidelity,  the  blessing  of  the  Church  which  conse- 
crates these  promises,  should  persuade  them,  no 
doubt,  that  God  ratifies  them,  that  He  will  give 
them  the  graces  and  the  strength  which  the}'  need 
to  enable  them  to  live  holily,  to  aid  and  support 
each  other,  and  to  bring  up  their  children  in  a 
Christian  manner  "  (Diction,  theol.,  art.  Marriage], 

(See  ibid.  :  The  minister  of  the  sacrament.) 

We  have  considered  the  contracting  parties  in 
marriage  as  the  ministers  of  the  sacrament.  It  is 
the  opinion  to  which  to-day  the  theological  schools 
return,  because  it  is  in  fact  the  opinion  of  tradition. 

A  good  number  of  theologians  have  deviated 
from  this  opinion,  following  Afe/chior  Cano.  They 
teach  that  the  priest  is  the  chief  minister  of  the 
sacrament  of  marriage.  The  contracting  parties 
only  present  the  matter,  which  is  their  consent ; 
the  priest  makes  the  sacrament  by  applying  the 


1 72  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

form  to  the  matter  in  these  words  :  Ego  vos  con- 
jungo.  The  principal  arguments  on  which  this 
opinion  rests  are  : 

1.  In  the  New  Testament,  the  words  in  which 
the  Apostle  St.  Paul  declares  that  the  priests  are 
the  dispensers  of  the  divine  mysteries  :     Sic  nos 
existimct  homo  ut  ministros  Christ  i  et  dispensatores 
mysteriorum  Dei  (I.  Cor.  vi.  i). 

2.  In  tradition,  the  testimony  of  the  Fathers, 
who  require  the  sacerdotal  benediction,  and  attri- 
bute to  it  the  power  of  joining  the  married  pair 
and  of  conferring  grace.    Obsignat  benedictio  (Ter- 
tul.,  Ad  uxor.  cap.  viii.).      Cum  ipsum   conjngium 
vela  mine  sacerdotali  et  benedictione  sanctificare  opor- 
teat  (S.  Ambrose,  Epist.  xix.  ad  Vigiliuni).     Jugum 
per  benedictionem  impositum  sit  distantium  conjunc- 
tio  (S.  Basil,   in   Hexaweron,    horn.   vii.).      Quan- 
tum ad  voluntatem  attinet  et  adsum,  et  simul  festuni 
celebro  juvenilesque  dextras  inter  se  jungo  atquc  ntras- 
quc  Dei  manui    (S.  Greg.  Naz.,  Epist.  Ivii.  ad  Pro- 
copiuui],  etc. 

To  the  testimony  of  the  Fathers  is  added  the  testi- 
mony of  Councils ;  from  the  Third  Lateran  Council, 
which  forbids  priests  to  receive  anything  for  bless- 
ing marriage  and  conferring  the  other  sacraments 
(Cap.  Cum  in  Ecclesia,  ix.  de  simonia) ;  from  the 
Council  of  Florence,  which  declares  that  in  all  the 
sacraments  of  the  New  Law  three  things  are 
necessary :  the  matter,  the  form,  and  the  per- 
son of  the  minister  conferring  the  sacrament : 
Omnia  sacramenta  nova  legis  tribus  pcrficientur, 
videlicet,  rebus  tanquam  materia  vcrbis  tanquam, 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  \  73 

forma,  et  persona  ministri  conferentis  sacramentnni. 

These  arguments  from  authorities  have  little 
strength,  and  are  easily  refuted. 

First,  it  is  manifest  that  in  the  chapter  where 
St.  Paul  calls  the  apostles  dispensers  of  the  mys- 
teries of  God,  he  desires  to  speak  of  the  ministry 
of  preaching.  To  apply  this  text  to  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  sacraments,  and  to  make  use  of  it  as 
an  instrument  of  war  to  demolish  a  teaching  of 
tradition,  is  to  go  beyond  the  intention  of  the 
Apostle,  who,  even  had  he  intended  indirectly  to 
signify  the  sacraments,  would  then  only  have 
spoken  of  those  whose  administration  is  intrusted 
to  the  preachers  of  the  Gospel. 

As  to  the  Fathers  and  Councils,  if  they  recom- 
mend the  nuptial  benediction,  it  is  evidently  in 
order  to  protest  against  clandestine  marriages,  to 
arouse  the  piety  of  the  faithful,  and  to  give  them  a 
higher  idea  of  the  sacrament. 

Tertullian,  in  his  book,  Ad  uxorem,  recommends 
the  faithful  to  receive  this  benediction,  so  as 
to  remove  all  suspicions  of  fornication  and  con- 
cubinage, which  rest  upon  those  \vho  marry  pri- 
vately. 

St.  Ambrose,  in  his  letter  A  Virgile,  does  not 
mention  the  benediction  which,  according  to 
Cano,  would  be  the  form  of  the  sacrament,  but 
that  which  accompanies  the  placing  the  veil  on  the 
heads  of  the  married  pair :  a  benediction  which  is 
never  given  to  a  second  marriage,  which  neverthe- 
less is  a  sacrament. 

St.  Basil  does  not  refer  to  the  sacerdotal  bene- 


1 74  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

diction,  but  to  the  benediction  which  God  gave  to 
our  first  parents. 

In  the  text  of  St.  Gregory  Nazianzen,  who 
excuses  himself  for  not  having  been  present  at  the 
marriage  of  Olympiade,  it  is  evident  that  he  speaks 
of  a  presence  destined  to  give  more  solemnity  to 
the  marriage,  and  not  of  a  benediction  on  which 
the  validity  of  the  sacrament  depends.  As  to 
the  decree  of  the  Lateran  Council  against  simony, 
it  in  no  way  assimilates  marriage  with  the  other 
sacraments  as  regards  its  sacerdotal  administra- 
tion. It  speaks  simply  of  the  celebration  of  mar- 
riage as  a  sacred  function  for  which  money  should 
not  be  demanded.  If  the  argument  of  those  who 
consider  the  priest  as  the  minister  of  marriage 
were  true  in  this  instance,  we  should  have  to  say 
that  funeral  services  and  burials,  of  which  the 
Council  speaks  in  the  same  decree,  are  sacraments. 
The  text  of  the  Council  of  Florence  proves  abso- 
lutely nothing  in  favor  of  the  opinion  of  Cano.  It 
requires  the  presence  of  a  minister,  but  it  does  not 
say  that  this  minister  should  be  a  priest.  Besides, 
the  doctrine  of  the  Fathers  of  Florence  on  this 
point  is  manifestly  expressed  in  the  text  where 
they  say  that  the  efficient  cause  of  marriage  is  the 
consent  of  the  contracting  parties  :  Causa  efficient 
matrimonii  rcgulariter  est  mutuus  consensus  per  verba 
de  prasenti  expressus. 

The  opinion  of  Cano  is  more  plausible  on  the 
side  of  theological  arguments.  It  multiplies  diffi- 
culties, but  there  are  none  which  cannot  be  solved. 
These  are  the  principal  ones  : 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  \  75 

Firstly,  everything  in  a  sacrament  should  be 
sacred  :  the  matter,  the  form,  the  ministry.  Now, 
in  the  contract,  all  is  secular ;  nothing  distin- 
guishes, as  to  its  elements,  that  of  Catholics  from 
that  of  infidels. 

Secondly,  in  the  sacrament  the  precise  and  de- 
termined form  should  be  applied  to  the  matter: 
Accedit  verbum  ad  elcmentum  et  fit  sacravicntnni. 
Now,  in  the  matrimonial  contract,  it  is  not  easy  to 
distinguish  form  from  matter,  and  consent  may  be 
expressed  in  various  ways,  even  by  signs. 

Thirdly,  the  Church  sometimes  permits  mar- 
riages between  Catholics  and  non-Catholics.  But 
if  the  contracting  parties  are  ministers,  they  com- 
mit a  double  sacrilege,  the  one  in  administering  a 
sacrament  to  another  who  is  unworthy  ;  the  other 
in  fulfilling  a  sacred  function  of  which  he  is  inca- 
pable. 

Fourthly  and  lastly,  it  is  impossible  that  the 
Church  should  put  into  the  mouths  of  her  ministers 
words  which  mean  nothing.  But  this  is  what 
would  happen  if  the  contracting  parties  were 
ministers.  Their  consent  would  unite  them,  and 
the  words  of  the  priest,  Ego  vos  in  matrimonium 
conjnngo,  would  have  absolutely  no  effect. 

We  reply  to  this : 

Firstly,  all  becomes  sacred  in  the  contract  the 
moment  God  raises  it  to  the  dignity  of  a  sacrament 
conferring  grace  and  representing  the  union  be- 
tween Christ  and  His  Church. 

Secondly,  in  the  contract  the  matter  is  perfectly 
distinct  from  the  form.  The  matter  is  the  dona 


1 76  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

tion  which  one  of  the  parties  makes  of  itself,  the 
form  is  the  acceptation  of  this  donation  by  the 
other  party.  It  matters  little  that  the  donation 
and  acceptation  be  expressed  in  different  ways, 
and  even  by  signs,  provided  that  there  is  a  veri- 
table contract  which  God  raises  to  the  dignity  of 
a  sacrament. 

Thirdly,  when  the  Church  permits  a  marriage 
between  Catholic  and  non-Catholic,  the  latter  re- 
ceives the  power  to  confer  the  sacrament  on  his 
or  her  partner,  and  for  this  it  is  sufficient  that  there 
should  be  the  intention  to  do  what  the  Church 
does.  And,  consequently,  there  is  no  sacrilege  on 
the  part  of  the  non-Catholic.  There  is  no  more  sac- 
rilege on  the  side  of  the  Catholic  party,  who,  only 
wishing  to  do  what  the  Church  does,  intends  only 
to  form  the  tie  and  not  to  give  grace  to  one  who 
is  unable  to  receive  it. 

Fourthly,  the  words  of  the  priest  are  not  with- 
out signification  in  the  celebration  of  marriage. 
They  express  the  solemn  approbation  which  the 
Church  gives  to  a  union  contracted  beneath  her 
eyes. 

Soon  after  Cano  had  put  forth  his  opinion,  a 
great  number  of  theologians  embraced  it,  among 
others,  Sylvius,  Estius,  Juvenin,  Piette,  Gibert,  Du 
Hamel,  L'Herminier,  Tournely ;  still,  Tournely 
confesses  that  if  number  should  decide  the  victory, 
the  opinion  of  scholastics  carries  it :  Si  ex  auctori- 
tatc  et  numero  scholasticorum  pugnandum  hie  foret, 
vinceret  hand  dubio  opposita  scntentia  (Tract,  de 
matrimonio].  But  since  this  the  number  of  the 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  1 77 

partisans  of  Melchior  Cano  has  greatly  increased, 
so  that  Roskovany  dares  to  write  that  the  number 
of  modern  theologians  who  maintain  the  opinion 
of  the  contracting  parties  being  ministers  is  very 
few :  Ex  recentioribus  paucissimi  vcterum  scJwlasti- 
corum  complectuntur  opinionem,  quasi  scilicet  ipsi 
contrahentes  sacramentum  matrimonii  sibi  admini- 
strarcnt." 

Benedict  Stattler  goes  further  and  asserts  that 
the  Church  can  define  dogmatically  to-day  this 
proposition  :  "  The  priest  is  the  minister  of  the 
sacrament  of  marriage." 

Stattler  is  mistaken.  The  Church  will  not 
define,  the  Church  cannot  define,  an  entirely  new 
opinion,  which  is  a  manifest  deviation  from  the 
teaching  of  the  schools  up  to  the  time  of  the 
Council  of  Trent. 

Cano  understood  so  well  the  great  importance 
and  authority  of  this  teaching  that  he  endeavored 
to  attach  his  opinion  to  that  of  some  scholastics. 
But  he  passes  over  William  de  Paris  and  Peter  cle 
Palude  (Paludanus) ;  and  St.  Thomas,  from  whom 
he  extracts  a  few  doubtful  texts,  gives  him  a  for- 
mal denial. 

According  to  the  holy  Doctor,  the  benediction 
of  the  priest  is  not  the  essence  of  marriage.  It  is 
simply,  like  many  other  benedictions,  a  kind  of 
sacramental :  Bcnedictio  saccrdotis  non  est  dc  essentia 
uiatriinonii,  scd  cst  quoddani  sacrauiciitalc  (In.  ^scnt. 
dist.  26,  q.  i,  a.  i  ad  2).  And,  besides,  he  affirms 
that  the  words  by  which  the  contracting  parties 
express  their  consent  directly  make  the  conjugal 


1 78  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

tie,  which  is  the  sacrament  of  marriage  :  Vcrba  con- 
sensual expcrivientia  dirccte  faciunt  nexum  quondam, 
qui  est  sacrament um  watrimonii  (Ibid.  a.  3  ad  3). 

The  authority  of  this  teaching  has  great  force 
for  the  opinion  of  those  who  consider  the  contract- 
ing parties  as  the  ministers  of  the  sacrament  of 
marriage.  The  testimony  of  Scripture  and  of  tra- 
dition does  not  fail  them. 

In  the  text  where  St.  Paul  compares  the  union 
of  man  and  woman  to  the  union  of  Christ  and  His 
Church,  there  is  no  question  of  the  intervention  of 
the  priest  nor  of  his  blessing,  and  it  is  manifestly 
to  the  act  by  which  the  married  pair  give  them- 
selves to  each  other  that  the  Apostle  applies  these 
words  :  Sacramcntum  hoc  magnum  est. 

As  to  the  Fathers,  if  we  examine  closely  their 
testimony,  we  are  convinced  that  they  regard  the 
blessing  of  the  priest  only  as  a  ceremony  necessary 
to  the  publicity  and  solemnity  of  the  sacrament, 
and  not  to  its  essence. 

Tertullian,  for  example,  after  having  said  that 
the  blessing  of  the  priest  seals  the  union  between 
husband  and  wife,  adds :  "  There  are  among  us 
unions  which  are  not  made  before  the  Church,  and 
they  run  the  risk  of  being  accused  of  adultery  and 
fornication  :  "  Idco  penes  nos  occult  a  qnoquc  con- 
junctioncs,  hoc  est  non  prius  apud  Ecclesiam  professes, 
juxta  mcechiam  ct  fornicationem  judicari  pcriclitan- 
tur  (Lib.  ii.,  ad  uxoreni}. 

These  words  indicate  plainly  that  the  sacerdotal 
blessing  is  a  measure  of  public  honesty  and  noth- 
ing else :  or  else  Tertullian  would  have  sim- 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  \Jg 

ply  said  that  clandestine  unions  are  fornications. 

It  is  proper,  says  St.  Ignatius,  the  martyr,  that 
husbands  and  wives  should  make  their  union  with 
the  consent  of  the  bishop.  It  is,  then,  the  husbands 
and  wives  who  make  the  union,  and  the  interven- 
tion of  the  priest  is  only  a  matter  of  propriety. 

St.  Augustine,  in  book  i.,  De  Nuptiis  et  Con- 
cupisccntia,  explains  the  text  of  St.  Paul  in  the  sense 
we  have  indicated  above  :  Quod  in  Christo  et  in 
Ecclcsia  cst  magnum  sacramentum,  hoc  est  in  singulis 
quibusquc  viris  atquc  uxoribus  minimum,  sed  tamen 
conjunctionis  inseparabilc  sacramentum. 

But  the  strongest  argument  in  favor  of  the  con- 
tracting parties  is  assuredly  the  doctrine  and  prac- 
tice of  the  Church.  Now,  the  Council  of  Flor- 
ence, after  having  said  :  Septimum  est  sacramen- 
tum matrimonii,  adds :  Causa  efficiens  matrimonii 
regular  it  cr  cst  mutuus  consensus  per  verba  de  prcssenti 
expressus.  The  Council  of  Trent,  in  the  first  chap- 
ter of  the  twenty-fourth  session,  declares  that  clan- 
destine marriages  are  true  marriages,  having  the 
character  of  sacraments,  so  long  as  the  Church 
has  not  taken  measures  to  invalidate  them,  and  it 
says  anathema  to  those  who  contradict  this  doc- 
trine :  Tametsi  dubilandum  non  est,  clandestine^  ma- 
trimonia  libero  contraJicntium  consensu  facta  rata  et 
vera  esse  matrimonia,  quamdiu  Ecclcsia  ca  irrita  non 
fecit ;  ct  proinde  jure  damnandi  sint  illi,  ut  cos  sane t a 
synodus  anatJiemate  damnat  qui  ea  vera  ac  rata  esse 
negant 

The  sense  of  the  word  rata,  which  the  Coun- 
cil of  Trent  employs,  is  clearly  determined  by  Inno- 


1 80  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

cent  III.,  Decret.,  cap.  Quanta.  Comparing  the  mar- 
riage of  Christians  with  that  of  infidels,  this  Pontiff 
calls  the  latter  verum  et  non  ratuiti,  the  former, 
verum  et  ratum,  because  it  is  a  sacrament :  Nam 
etsi  matrimonium  VERUM  inter  infidclcs  cxistat,  non 
tamen  cst  RATUM/  inter  fidelcs  antem  VERUM  et 
R  ATU  M  existit ;  quia  sacr amentum  fidei,  quod  sand  ut 
admissum,  mimquam  amittitur  sed  RATUM  cfficit  con- 
jugii  SACRAMENTUM  nt  ipsum  in  conjugibus  Ufa 
durante  perduret. 

In  practice,  clandestine  marriages  are  considered 
true  marriages  everywhere  where  the  Council  of 
Trent  has  not  been  promulgated. 

By  exacting  the  presence  of  the  priest,  the 
Council  has  not  claimed  to  appoint  him  minister 
of  the  sacrament,  but  as  a  witness  commissioned 
by  the  Church  to  watch  over  a  holy  action.  By 
introducing  the  obstacle  of  clandestinity,  it  has 
not  denied  the  sacred  power  of  the  contracting 
parties,  but  it  has  rendered  them  incapable  of 
contracting. 

This  argument  appears  to  us  irrefutable ;  it  is 
the  strongest  that  can  be  made  in  favor  of  the 
contracting  parties  being  ministers. 

It  is  incomprehensible  how  Stattler  has  dared 
to  affirm  that  the  Church  was  in  a  position  to 
define  this  opinion  dogmatically : — the  priest  is  the 
minister  of  the  sacrament  of  marriage.  The  au- 
thority of  Benedict  XIV.  is  foolishly  invoked  in 
favor  of  this  opinion.  This  learned  Pope  only 
calls  it  very  probable,  out  of  consideration  for  the 
number  of  its  adherents.  But  in  the  same  work 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  1 8 1 

(De  Synod.  Dicecesana)  where  he  gives  it  this  testi- 
mony, he  affirms  positively  that  in  marriage  the 
priest  is  only  a  witness  representing  the  Church, 
in  order  to  authorize  the  action  of  the  contract- 
ing parties  :  Parochus  interest  inatrinwnio  tanquani 
testis  autJiorizabilis  pro  ecclcsia.  And  again,  as 
pope,  in  his  decretal  to  the  archbishop  of  Goa,  he 
recognizes  that  in  the  action  of  the-  contractors 
there  are  all  the  elements  of  a  true  sacrament: 
Materia  est  mutua  corpornm  traditio,  verbis  ac  nuti- 
bus  assensum  expcrimcntibus,  et  mutua  corporum  accep- 
tatio  forma. 

Father  Perrone  judiciously  exposes  the  danger- 
ous consequences  of  the  opinion  of  Cano  and  of  his 
adherents.  The  greatest  of  all  is,  that  this  opinion 
can  easily  be  made  use  of  to  establish  the  impious 
doctrine  of  the  separation  of  the  contract  and  the 
sacrament  in  Christian  marriage,  and  so  justify  all 
the  encroachments  of  the  secular  power. 

(Cf.  Perrone,  De  Matrimonio  Christiana,  Lib.  i. 
sect,  i.,  cap.  11). 

CONFERENCE  II. 

( See  the  first  part :    Un  ity  of  marriage. ) 

IT  is  certain  that  the  intention  of  God  in  the  in- 
stitution of  marriage  was  unity  with  indissolubility. 
But  this  intention  is  always  veiled  in  the  divine 
institution,  to  serve  later  on  as  the  foundation  of 
the  law  of  Christ.  At  the  origin  of  the  human 
family  there  is  no  express  law  forbidding  polyg- 
amy. 


1 82  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

God  might  permit  it,  in  spite  of  its  inconveni- 
ences, because  these  might  be  overcome  by  the 
principal  end  of  marriage,  which  is  the  propagation 
of  the  human  race.  Polygamy  is,  no  doubt,  fitted 
for  the  execution  of  the  divine  command  given  to 
all  living  creatures,  "  Increase  and  multiply,  and  fill 
the  earth."  And  it  may  have  been  necessary  dur- 
ing a  certain  time  and  in  certain  climates  .for  the 
equilibrium  of  the  sexes.  "  With  the  patriarchs," 
says  St.  Thomas,  "its  design  was  the  multiplication 
of  the  race  destined  for  the  worship  of  God ;  now, 
as  a  principal  end  deserves  more  attention  than  a 
secondary  end,  God  perhaps  permitted  less  ac- 
count to  be  taken  during  a  certain  time  of  the 
secondary  ends  of  marriage,  to  which  the  prohibi- 
tion of  polygamy  is  attached,  when  it  was  more 
necessary  to  assure  the  principal  end,  that  is  to 
say,  the  multiplication  of  the  people  of  God: "  Opor- 
tebat  prcedictum  naturce  prceccptum  prcetermitti  nt 
major  csset  multiplicatio  prolis  ad  cultuin  Dei  edu- 
candcz.  Semper  enim  principalior  finis  magis  obscr- 
vandus  est  quam  secundarius.  Unde  cum  bonum  prolis 
sit  principalis  matrimonii  finis,  ubi prolis  multiplicatio 
necessaria  erat  debuit  negligi  ad  tempus  impcdimcntum, 
quod  posset  in  secundariis  finibus  evcnire,  ad  quod  re- 
movendum  praceptum  prohibens  pluralitatem  uxorum 
ordinatur  (Summ.  TJieol.  supp.  quasst.  45.  a.  2). 

Did  the  patriarchs  need  a  divine  inspiration  to 
believe  themselves  authorized  to  have  polygamy  ? 
St.  Thomas  thinks  so :  In  hoc  a  solo  Deo  dispensatio 
fieri  potuit  per  inspirationcin  internam  (Loc.  cit.). 
Others  think  that  in  the  absence  of  an  express  and 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  \  8  3 

determined  law  the  patriarchs  may  have  conformed 
to  the  custom,  excused  by  the  end  which  they  had 
in  view:  the  multiplication  of  the  children  of  God: 
Sufficiencies  prolis  causa  erat  Jtxornm  phirimn  siiiiul 
uni  viro  Jiabcndarum  incnlpabilis  consuetudo  (S.  Aug., 
De  doctrin.  Christ.,  lib.  iii.,  cap.  xii.,  n.  20). 

Besides,  let  us  remark  that  polygamy  could  not 
be  permitted  to  the  patriarchs  except  on  certain 
conditions,  which  should  be  founded  on  the  hon- 
esty of  the  end. 

First,  all  the  women  should  be  true  wives. 
Secondly,  the  first  and  principal  wife  should  either 
expressly  or  tacitly  cede  her  right. 

The  example  of  the  patriarchs  does  not  excuse 
infidels  with  whom  polygamy  has  become  a  veri- 
table debauch. 

Whilst  Calvin  abuses  the  patriarchs  and  makes 
a  crime  of  their  polygamy,  Luther  permitted  the 
landgrave  of  Hesse  to  have  two  wives  at  the  same 
time  ;  for  the  reason,  says  he,  "  that  a  Christian 
ought  to  be  free  to  follow  the  example  of  the  pa- 
triarchs." Touching  agreement  of  two  reformers 
who  shared  the  same  rule  of  faith,  the  sole  author- 
ity of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  ! 

Simultaneous  polygamy  is  forbidden  in  the  New 
Law  ;  can  we  say  the  same  of  successive  polygamy, 
that  is  to  say,  of  second  marriages  after  the  death 
of  one  of  the  partners  ? 

The  Montanists,  imitated  by  the  Novatians,  ab- 
solutely condemned  second  marriages  as  illicit  and 
execrable.  Tertullian  is  their  interpreter  in  his 
book  on  monogamy. 


1 84  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

Let  us  remark  that,  although  the  Church  has 
condemned  this  error,  she  has  little  sympathy  with 
successive  marriages.  She  suppresses  in  second 
marriages  ceremonies  which  she  grants  as  a  favor 
to  first  marriages :  in  the  Latin  Church,  the  bless- 
ing with  the  veil ;  in  the  Greek  Church,  the  coro- 
nation. 

Let  us  remark,  in  the  second  place,  that  the 
Greek  Church  has  shown  much  more  severity 
than  the  Latin.  Although  she  does  not  consider 
third  and  fourth  marriages  illicit  absolutely,  she  has 
always  disapproved  of  them  as  proofs  of  inconti- 
nency.  Finally,  let  us  remark  that  the  Church  has 
always  manifested  her  preference  for  the  state  of 
widowhood,  which  she  regards  as  a  more  perfect 
state  than  marriage,  provided  it  be  preserved  for 
the  love  of  chastity. 

Having  made  these  remarks,  we  should  acknowl- 
edge with  the  Church  that  second  marriages  are 
perfectly  legitimate.  The  Apostle  has  clearly  pro- 
claimed the  right  of  the  woman  after  the  conjugal 
tie  is  broken  by  death  :  Mulier.  .  .  .  si  dormierit 
vir  ejus,  liber  at  a  est ;  cut  vult  nubat.  "He  who 
marries  when  he  has  become  a  widower  does  not 
sin,"  says  Hermas :  Qiii  nubit  post  viduitatem  non 
peccat  (In  Pastor.,  lib.  ii.).  Clement  of  Alexandria 
writes  exactly  the  same  thing,  always  remark- 
ing that  he  who  marries  again  deviates  from  the 
high  perfection  preached  in  the  Gospel :  Non 
implct  autem  suminam  illam  i*itce  perfectionem,  quoe 
agitur  ex  evangclio  (Lib.  iii.  Stromat.}. 

Some  theologians  have  been  struck  by  the  se- 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  \  8  5 

verity  with  which  the  holy  Fathers  have  spoken 
of  second  marriages  ;  several  have  thought  they 
condemned  them  as  unlawful.  This  is  an  error. 
Cotelier  spent  all  his  erudition  in  proving  this 
opinion  ;  in  all,  he  has  only  been  able  to  bring 
together  eleven  witnesses :  Athenagoras,  Theo- 
philus  of  Antioch,  St.  Irenasus,  Tertullian  (still 
Catholic),  Minutius  Felix,  Origen,  St.  Gregory 
Nazianzen,  St.  Amphilochius,  St.  Chrysostom,  St. 
Ambrose,  and  St.  Jerome.  But  these  witnesses, 
says  Father  Perrone,  do  not  deviate  from  Catholic 
doctrine,  if  they  are  rightly  interpreted.  They 
only  prove  the  intention  of  the  Fathers  to  excite 
the  faithful  to  greater  perfection,  by  exhorting 
them  to  keep  chastity  in  widowhood. 

But  if  second  marriages  are  lawful,  why  inflict 
penalties  on  those  who  remarry  ?  They  are  unfit 
for  sacred  orders.  Formerly,  they  were  subjected 
to  public  penance,  prayers,  fastings,  abstinences. 
They  were  refused  the  blessing  of  the  priest ;  in 
the  Greek  Church  the  coronation  was  denied 
them.  They  were  deprived  of  the  alms  of  the 
Church,  and  their  marriage  was  made  with  a  sort 
of  secrecy.  This  proves  that  the  Church  does  not 
regard  second  marriages  with  a  favorable  eye,  be- 
cause they  indicate  a  tendency  to  the  pleasures  of 
the  flesh  ;  but  that  does  not  mean  that  she  con- 
demns them  as  unlawful. 

Although  the  Church  regards  third  and  subse- 
quent marriages  with  far  more  repugnance  than 
second  ones,  she  does  not  forbid  them,  and  her 
rigor  of  discipline  in  this  respect  is  not  dogmatic. 


1 86  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

The  words  of  the  Apostle  which  permit  remar- 
riage after  the  rupture  of  the  conjugal  tie  by  death 
are  general  and  indicate  no  limit  to  the  repetition 
of  marriage.  "  Men,"  says  St.  Augustine,  "  agitate 
the  question  of  third  and  fourth  marriages.  I 
condemn  nothing.  Who  am  I  that  I  should  define 
what  the  Apostle  has  not  defined  ?  "  De  tcrtiis  et  de 
quartis  nuptiis  solent  homines  movere  qucestionem. 
Unde,  lit  breviter  respondeam,  nee  nllas  nuptias  audeo 
damnare.  .  .  .  Quis  enim  sum,  qui putcm  dcfinicndum, 
quod  nee  Apostolum  video  dejiniisse.  "  However  many 
the  number  of  marriages,  I  dare  not  condemn  them 
on  my  own  authority  and  without  the  authority 
of  Scripture  :  "  Ncc  ex  corde  meo  prater  scripture 
sanctce  auctoritatem,  quotaslibet  nuptias  audeo  condem- 
nare  (Lib.  De  bono  viduit.,  cap.  xii.). 

St.  Jerome,  the  severest  of  the  Fathers  with  re- 
gard to  the  repetition  of  marriage,  even  to  calling 
it  a  prostitution  or  disguised  fornication,  protests 
in  the  following  terms  against  those  who  accuse 
him  of  condemning  marriage  :  "  Let  the  calum- 
niator blush  who  asserts  that  I  condemn  those 
who  marry,  when  he  has  read  in  my  writings 
that  I  condemn  neither  bigamy  nor  trigamy,  nor 
even  those  who  have  eight  successive  wives. 
But  it  is  one  thing  to  condemn,  another  to  recom- 
mend :  "  Erubescat  calumniator  meus,  diccns  me  pri- 
ma  damnare  matrimonia,  quando  legit :  non  damno 
bigamos  et  trigamos,  ct  si  did  potest  octogamos.  Ali- 
ud  est  non  damnare,  aliud  pradicare  (Epist.  Ad 
Pammach.  xlvii.).  These  last  words  of  St.  Jerome 
sum  up  perfectly  the  feeling  and  the  conduct  of 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  \  87 

the  Church  with  regard  to  those  who  remarry. 
(Cf.  Perrone,  De  Matrimonio   Christiana,  tome 
iii.,  lib.  iii.,  cap.  i.  et  ii.) 

(See  ibid.  :  Indissolubility.} 

That  marriage  is  indissoluble  by  divine  law  is 
incontestable.  Is  it  so  by  natural  law  ?  One  opin- 
ion, which  St.  Alphonsus  Liguori  calls  very  com- 
mon, replies  affirmatively  and  in  absolute  manner 
to  this  question.  Divorce,  say  the  partisans  of 
this  opinion,  violates  the  equality  which  should 
exist  between  husband  and  wife  ;  for  the  wife  can- 
not withdraw  from  the  conjugal  union  with  the 
same  advantages  as  the  husband.  If  she  provoke 
the  rupture,  she  withdraws  from  the  authority  of 
her  husband,  to  \vhom  she  should  be  subject  ;  if 
the  husband  has  the  power  to  abandon  her,  her 
condition  degenerates  into  a  veritable  servitude. 

In  the  second  place,  divorce  destroys  the  union 
which  should  exist  between  husband  and  wife  ;  it 
favors  ill-assorted  marriages  ;  it  cools  and  weakens 
love  ;  it  is  an  encouragement  to  violent  and  dis- 
turbing passions,  which  multiply  dissensions  in 
order  to  get  rid  of  a  tie  which  incommodes  them, 
and  so  to  recover  their  liberty  and  the  right  to 
seek  another  union  ;  it  opens  the  road  to  the  most 
shameful  crimes,  especially  that  of  adultery. 

In  the  third  place,  divorce  is  injurious  to  the 
education  of  children,  which  cannot  be  completed 
without  the  simultaneous  concurrence  of  father 
and  mother. 

In   the   fourth   place,   divorce   deeply  troubles 


1 88  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

families.  It  sows  the  seeds  of  hatred,  discord, 
lawsuits,  and  becomes  consequently  a  principle  of 
dissolution  for  society. 

Finally,  it  dishonors  marriage  itself,  condemned 
to  become  shortly  a  pure  concubinage,  a  kind  of 
legal  prostitution.  We  have  developed  all  these 
arguments  in  our  conference  commenting  on  the 
remarkable  words  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  Leo 
XIII.,  in  his  Encyclical  Arcanum  divines  sapientice. 
We  should  add,  say  the  theologians  whose  senti- 
ments are  thus  expressed,  the  condemnation  of  the 
sixty-seventh  proposition  of  the  Syllabus :  Jure 
natura  inatrimonii  vinculum  11011  cst  indissolubile,  et  in 
variis  casibus  divortium  proprie  dictum  auctoritate 
civili  sanciri  potest.  Whence  it  must  be  concluded 
that  indissolubility  is  not  only  conformable  to  nat- 
ural law,  but  that  it  is  commanded  and  exacted 
by  natural  law. 

There  is  truth  in  this  opinion,  but  the  conclusion 
from  the  arguments  it  employs  is  exaggerated. 
If  indissolubility  is  commanded  by  the  natural 
law,  it  is  difficult  to  explain  the  dispensation 
granted  by  God.  We  must  have  recourse  to  the 
opinion  of  Scotus,  generally  abandoned  by  theo- 
logians ;  that  is  to  say,  that  God  has  the  power  to 
dispense  from  the  precepts  of  the  second  table, 
with  the  exception  of  the  one  which  forbids  lying, 
or  rather  to  explain  the  conduct  of  God  by  this 
strange  supposition,  that  He  does  not  dispense  from 
a  precept  of  the  natural  law  by  authorizing  di- 
vorce, but  that  he  uses  his  absolute  right  to  break 
the  conjugal  tie,  and  to  destroy  the  marriage  in 


Index  of  Principal  Errors  \  89 

order  that  another  may  be  contracted.  These 
acts  of  authority  appear  to  us  to  be  not  conform- 
able to  the  habitual  order  of  Providential  action. 

Another  extreme  opinion,  the  representatives  of 
which,  among  theologians,  are  Sanchez,  Bellar- 
mine,  Swartz,  Simonnet,  Lherminier,  Collet,  Sar- 
dagna,  etc.,  and  among  Christian  philosophers, 
Galluppi,  Genovesi,  Liberatore,  maintains  that  in- 
dissolubility  is  not  of  the  natural  law,  or  at  least 
that  it  is  impossible  to  prove  it  by  reasoning. 

Far  from  being  contrary  to  the  principal  end  of 
marriage — the  propagation  of  the  human  species — 
divorce  may  in  certain  cases  be  the  only  means  of 
obtaining  this  end  ;  for  example,  when  a  first  mar- 
riage is  sterile,  especially  if  the  sterility  of  one  of 
the  partners  is  only  relative.  If  marriage  be  con- 
sidered a  remedy  for  concupiscence,  it  is  difficult 
to  see  why  divorce  should  not  be  permitted,  when 
the  incurable  infirmity  of  one  of  the  married  pair 
prevents  the  use  of  this  remedy.  In  short,  if  it  is 
true  that  a  child  is  more  easily  and  better  brought 
up  by  the  simultaneous  concurrence  of  father 
and  mother,  divorce  nevertheless  does  not  render 
its  education  impossible,  nor  compromise  it  more 
than  a  separation  which  might  be  perpetual. 
Thus  the  principal  reason  brought  forward  to 
prove  that  indissolubility  is  commanded  by  the 
natural  law,  that  is  to  say,  the  necessity  of  the 
union  of  father  and  mother  for  the  education  of 
the  child,  is  not  convincing,  and  besides,  nature,  far 
from  being  repugnant  to  divorce,  seems  in  some 
cases  to  demand  it.  Besides,  the  permission  of 


1 90  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

divorce  given  by  God  to  His  people,  in  the 
Mosaic  legislation,  is  an  historical  fact,  which  con- 
firms this  opinion.  This  permission  would  cer- 
tainly not  have  been  granted  if  the  rupture  of  the 
conjugal  tie  had  been  contrary  to  the  law  of  na- 
ture. 

We  should  remark  that  the  patrons  of  this  doc- 
trine do  not  pretend  that  the  conjugal  tie  may  be 
broken  at  will.  There  must  be  grave  reasons  for 
that,  and  it  is  well  understood  that  the  dissolution 
of  marriage  should  not  occasion  any  prejudice  to 
the  generation  and  early  education  of  children. 

In  spite  of  these  reservations,  we  do  not  see  how, 
by  withdrawing  the  natural  law,  they  can  escape 
the  condemnation  of  the  proposition  we  have 
quoted  above :  the  tie  of  marriage  is  not  indisso- 
luble by  natural  law,  and  in  the  different  cases  wliicJi 
occur  divorce  strictly  speaking  may  be  decreed  by  the 
civil  authority. 

Between  the  two  opinions  which  we  have  just 
explained,  there  is  a  third,  which  removes  all  the 
difficulties  on  the  side  of  the  dispensation  granted 
by  God  and  on  the  side  of  the  condemnation  of 
the  eighty-seventh  proposition  of  the  Syllabus ;  it  is 
the  opinion  of  St.  Thomas,  adopted  by  Father 
Perrone  in  his  treatise,  De  Matrimonio  Christiana 
(tome  iii.,  lib.  iii.,  sect.  ii.). 

"  The  indissolubility  of  marriage,"  says  the  holy 
Doctor,  "is  of  natural  law  :  "  Inseparabilitas  matri- 
inonii  est  de  lege  natura  (Summ.  Theol.  supp.  quasst. 
57,  a.  i).  Nevertheless,  it  does  not  belong  to  the 
first  precepts  of  the  law  of  nature,  but  only  to  the 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  1 9 1 

second  precepts,  that  is  to  say,  to  secondary  and 
derived  natural  law,  with  which  God  can  dispense 
for  reasons  drawn  from  nature  itself.  It  is  suffi- 
cient, for  example,  that,  wishing  to  prevent  a  great- 
er evil,  he  should  permit  one  of  the  secondary  ends 
of  marriage,  the  education  of  children,  to  be  only 
imperfectly  attained,  as  happens  in  the  case  of  di- 
vorce. Briefly,  divorce  not  being  immediately  and 
directly  opposed  to  the  first  intention  of  nature  in 
marriage,  which  is  the  generation  of  children,  and 
consequently  to  the  first  precepts  of  natural  law, 
God  has  seen  fit  to  permit  it :  Non  videtur  csse 
contra  primain  intent  tone  m  nature?  dcmissio  uxoris  ; 
ct  per  conscquens,  ncc  contra  prima  prcecepta,  sed  con- 
tra sccunda  Icgis  nature  ;  nnde  ctiam  prinio  niodo  (id 
est  ex  aliqua  causa  naturali,  per  quain  alia  causa  na- 
turali  iinpcditur  in  cursu  SHO)  sub  dispensations  posse 
cadere  vidctur  (Loc.  cit,  a.  2). 

In  fact,  God  permitted  divorce  to  His  people  to 
prevent  those  domestic  crimes  to  which  they  were 
exposed  by  the  hardness  of  their  hearts  :  Libel/us 

repudii  in  lege  permissus  fuit proptcr  majus 

malum  coJiibcnduni,  scilicet  nxoricidinm  adquodjudcei 
proni  era n f,  proptcr  corruptioncin  irascibilis  (Loc.  cit. 
a.  3).  This  opinion  seems  to  us  the  most  reason- 
able. It  permits  us  to  invoke  the  natural  law 
against  the  adversaries  of  indissolubility,  at  least 
to  justify  fully  the  divine  law,  as  we  have  done  in 
our  conference.  On  the  other  hand,  it  offers  us  an 
easy  way  to  escape  the  objection  drawn  from  the 
Mosaic  law. 


192  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

CONFERENCE  III. 

(See  the  first  part.) 

THE  greater  part  of  the  philosophers  of  antiquity, 
even  the  most  wise,  denied  the  indissolubility  of 
marriage,  and  considered  divorce  as  perfectly  legi- 
timate :  Plato,  Cato,  Cicero,  as  well  as  the  jurists 
Paulus,  Cajus,  Ulpianns,  professed  the  doctrine  of  di- 
vorce without  limit. 

This  absolute  doctrine,  long  forgotten  since  the 
transformation  worked  by  Christianity  in  institu- 
tions and  customs,  has  reappeared  under  the  pen 
of  modern  philosophers  and  politicians.  Hennet 
(1785),  Braun  (1788),  Wertsmeistcr,  Bentham,  Ferrari, 
and,  generally  speaking,  all  the  apostles  of  social- 
ism and  communism,  claim  the  liberty  of  divorce. 
Novelists  even  speak  philosophically  on  this  grave 
question.  We  refer  the  reader  to  our  conference, 
in  which  we  have  brought  forward  the  reasons  in- 
voked by  the  advocates  of  divorce  and  the  sad 
consequences  of  their  doctrine. 

Protestantism  began  the  war  against  indissolu- 
bility on  a  less  wide  field.  Heresy,  the  ill-usages 
capable  of  rendering  the  conjugal  house  uninhabita- 
ble, the  unnecessary  absence  of  one  of  the  married 
pair,  adultery  more  than  all,  appeared  to  it  suffi- 
cient reasons  for  breaking  the  conjugal  tie.  We 
have  quoted  in  the  notes  of  our  former  conference 
the  canons  of  the  Council  of  Trent  which  con- 
demn this  error. 

It  is  on  adultery  that  Protestantism  insists  most, 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  193 

because  it  considers  itself  authorized  by  Our  Lord's 
words  to  the  Pharisees  :  Dico  auteiti  vobis  quia 
quicumquc  diiniscrit  uxoreni  suain,  nisi  ob  fornicatio- 
ncni,  ct  aliam  duxcrit,  incccliatur  ;  ct  qui  dimissam  dii~ 
xcrit,  mixcJiatur :  "  I  say  to  you,  whosoever  shall 
put  away  his  wife,  except  it  be  for  fornication,  and 
shall  marry  another,  committeth  adultery,  and  he 
that  shall  marry  her  that  is  put  away  commit- 
teth adultery"  (St.  Matt.  xix.  9).  These  words  had 
already  been  pronounced  on  another  occasion  in 
almost  the  same  form  :  Ego  autcin  dico  vobis,  quia 
oinnis  qui  diiniscrit  uxorcin  suam  exccptafornicationis 
causa,  facit  cam  mcechari ;  ct  qui  ditnissam  duxcrit 
adnltcrat  (St.  Matt.  v.  32). 

According  to  the  Protestant  interpretation  Jesus 
Christ,  while  suppressing  divorce  in  the  other 
cases  tolerated  by  the  Jewish  law,  authorized  it  in 
the  case  where  one  of  the  married  pair  was  guilty 
of  adultery.  This  is  the  meaning  attributed  to 
these  words  :  Nisi  ob  fornicationem — cxccpta  forni- 
cationis  causa. 

Catholic  theologians  and  interpreters,  in  order 
to  protect  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  against  the 
attacks  of  heresy  and  schism,  have  given  divers  in- 
terpretations of  the  two  texts  in  St.  Matthew. 
We  will  not  speak  of  them,  for  we  do  not  consider 
them  true. 

With  the  Councils  of  Florence  and  of  Trent  we 
believe  that  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  circumstances 
when  the  words  quoted  above  were  pronounced, 
forbade  divorce  absolutely,  because  He  proclaimed 
absolutely  the  indissolubility  of  marriage.  If  we 


194  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

consider  only  the  text  itself,  it  seems  indeed  as  if 
Jesus  Christ  established  an  exception  to  indissolu- 
bility  in  the  case  of  adultery,  but  the  context  does 
not  permit  us  to  adopt  this  opinion,  because  it 
would  be  placing  the  Saviour  in  contradiction 
with  Himself. 

What  does  Christ  desire  ?  To  bring  back  mar- 
riage to  its  primitive  institution.  Those  whom  God 
has  united  are  henceforth  but  one  flesh,  and  man 
has  no  right  to  separate  them.  If  Moses  permitted 
divorce,  it  was  purely  by  tolerance  and  contrary 
to  the  primitive  institution.  In  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  on  earth  they  shall  return  strictly  to  the  di- 
vine plan.  This  is  certainly  the  obvious  sense  of 
the  discourse  of  Our  Lord  with  the  Pharisees. 
Now  all  this  beautiful  argument  falls  at  once,  de- 
stroyed by  the  very  word  of  Christ,  the  moment 
he  lays  down,  like  the  Jews,  the  principle  that  di- 
vorce may  exist  in  certain  cases,  contrary  to  nat- 
ural and  divine  law.  The  words  nisi  ob  fornicatio- 
nem  could  not,  therefore,  apply  to  the  tie  of  mar- 
riage nor  establish  a  special  case  in  which  divorce 
would  be  permitted. 

Another  contradiction.  On  the  one  hand,  in 
the  first  part  of  the  text,  Jesus  Christ  would 
affirm  that  the  union  is  dissolved  by  the  adultery 
of  the  wife,  and  that  man  becomes  free  to  marry 
again ;  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  second  part,  he 
would  forbid  to  marry  the  unfaithful  wife,  under 
the  pain  of  adultery  :  Qui  dimissam  duxcrit  ince- 
chatur.  Thus  He  would  suppose  that  the  marriage 
tie  is  dissolved  for  the  offended  man,  and  that  it  is 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  195 

not  so  for  the  unfaithful  woman,  which  is  an  ab- 
surdity. If  the  words  nisi  ob  fornicationem  im- 
ply a  condition  of  rupture,  they  should  have  been 
repeated  after  the  word  dimissain.  For  example, 
Jesus  Christ  should  have  said  :  Qni  dimissain  dn- 
xcrit  nicechatur,  nisi  inulicr  fncrit  dimissa  ob  fornica- 
tionem. The  concession  made  for  the  case  of 
adultery  should  therefore  be  understood  as  a  sim- 
ple separation,  and  not  as  a  rupture  of  the  conjugal 
tie.  The  decree  of  indissolubility  therefore  con- 
tains three  articles: 

Art.  I. — A  husband  is  not  permitted  to  separate 
from  his  wife,  except  in  the  case  of  adultery. 

Art.  II. — Even  in  such  a  case  he  cannot  marry 
another  wife  without  himself  committing  adultery. 

Art.  III. — Whoever  marries  the  unfaithful  wife 
becomes  guilty  of  the  same  crime. 

Such  was,  certainly,  the  thought  of  Our  Lord, 
and  it  was  in  this  sense  that  His  hearers  under- 
stood His  words.  The  apostles,  especially,  ex- 
pressed their  astonishment  at  the  severity  of  the 
conditions  made  for  marriage  by  the  New  Law, 
even  to  asking  whether  it  were  not  better  to  ab- 
stain from  marriage.  They  would  not  have  been 
terrified  to  such  a  degree,  if  Jesus  Christ  had  toler- 
ated divorce  at  least  in  the  case  of  the  misconduct 
of  the  wife. 

If  we  compare  the  text  in  St.  Matthew  with  other 
portions  of  Scripture,  more  light  is  thrown  on  the 
passage,  and  the  Catholic  doctrine  is  confirmed. 
St.  Mark  and  St.  Luke  speak  in  an  absolute  man- 
ner, without  the  slightest  reference  to  the  clause 


196  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

in  St.  Matthew.  We  read  in  St.  Mark:  Qui. 
cuinque  diniiscrit  uxorem  suam,  ct  aliam  duxcrit, 
adultcrium  conunittit  super  earn.  Et  si  uxor  diniiscrit 
viruin  suuin  ct  alii  nupscrit,  mcecliatur  (St.  Mark 
x.  11,  12).  In  St.  Luke:  Oninis  qui  diniittit  uxor  cm 
suain,  et  altcram  ducit,  mcecliatur;  ct  qui  dimissam  a 
viro  ducit,  mceclialur  (St.  Luke  xvi.  18).  Nothing  can 
be  plainer.  Exegesis  obliges  us  to  explain  the  ob- 
scure passage  in  St.  Matthew  by  these  texts  so  full 
of  precision.  St.  Paul  is  not  less  precise  :  "  The 
woman  is  bound  to  her  husband  so  long  as  he 
lives  ;  . . .  she  is  an  adulteress  if  she  has  intercourse 
with  another  man  during  the  lifetime  of  her  hus- 
band: "  Mulier  alligata  cst  legi  quanto  tcmporc  i'ir 
cjus  vivit  (I.  Cor.  vii.  39).  Igitur  viventc  1'iro  i'o- 
cabitur  adult  era  si  fuerit  cum  alio  viro  (Rom.  vii. 

2,  3)- 

As  to  tradition,  Maldonatus  sums  it  up  in  these 
few  words :  "  The  doctrine  of  the  absolute  indis- 
solubility  of  marriage  has  in  its  favor  the  most 
ancient,  the  most  numerous,  and  the  best  authors: " 
Hac  sententia  antiquiorcs,  plurcs,  mcliorcs  habct  au- 
ctorcs.  We  refer  the  reader  again  to  the  learned 
treatise  De  Matrimonio  Cliristiano,  in  which  Father 
Perrone  demonstrates  that  the  teaching  of  tradi- 
tion is  in  perfect  conformity  with  the  doctrine  of 
the  Gospel  and  of  the  Apostle,  as  we  have  explained 
it.  After  having  quoted  the  indisputable  testimon y 
of  Hermas,  St.  Justin,  Athenagoras,  Clement  of 
Alexandria,  Origen,  St.  Cyprian,  St.  Gregory  Na- 
zianzen,  St.  Ambrose,  St.  Chrysostom,  Theodoret, 
St.  Jerome,  St.  Augustine,  St.  Innocent,  of  the 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  197 

Council  of  Elvira  (306),  the  Council  of  Aries  (314), 
of  the  Fourth  Council  of  Mileve  (418),  the  learned 
theologian  discusses  the  texts  and  standard  works 
prior  to  the  sixth  century,  on  which  the  adversar- 
ies of  absolute  indissolubility  endeavor  to  establish 
their  opinion.  He  shows  that  the  greater  part  of 
them  can  be  interpreted  in  a  Catholic  sense,  and 
that  if  some  seem  obscure  in  meaning  not  one  of 
them  openly  admits  the  marriage  of  husbands  and 
wives  separated  on  account  of  adultery.  It  is, 
therefore,  false  to  say  that  the  Fathers  are  divided 
in  opinion,  and  that  the  tradition  of  the  first  cen- 
turies on  this  question  oscillates  between  affirma- 
tion and  negation. 

Certain  documents  of  the  middle  ages  are  not  less 
explicit.  The  result  of  their  examination  proves 
that  from  the  sixth  century  the  doctrine  of  ab- 
solute indissolubility  has  always  been  taught  and 
practised,  and  has  everywhere  rested  on  the  au- 
thority of  the  Gospel  and  of  the  Apostle,  to  forbid 
Christians  marrying  during  the  lifetime  of  either 
husband  or  wife  even  in  case  of  separation  on  ac- 
count of  adultery. 

The  documents  of  the  middle  ages  made  use  of 
by  the  adversaries  of  absolute  indissolubility  are 
either  doubtful  or  badly  interpreted.  When  they 
speak  of  the  rupture  of  the  conjugal  tie  it  must 
always  be  understood  as  a  simple  separation,  which 
implies  no  right  to  contract  a  new  union. 

If  we  can  suppose  that  one  or  t\vo  provincial 
Councils  have  wrongly  interpreted  the  text  of  the 
Gospel,  and  have  taught  that  the  conjugal  tie  was 


198  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

broken  by  adultery,  we  must  simply  conclude  that 
they  were  mistaken.  Their  doctrine  would  have 
no  weight  against  that  of  the  universal  Church. 
Besides,  as  Father  Perrone  judiciously  remarks,  if 
the  meaning  attributed  to  the  text  of  St.  Matthew 
by  the  adversaries  of  absolute  indissolubility  were 
the  true  meaning,  conformable  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  Apostle  and  of  tradition,  how  does  it  happen 
that  in  spite  of  the  exactions  of  passions  and  of  the 
license  granted  by  civil  laws  we  have,  in  a  doc- 
trinal and  practical  point  of  view,  a  contrary  mean- 
ing flowing  plenteously  through  the  course  of 
centuries,  from  the  origin  of  Christianity  down  to 
our  own  days? 

The  practice  of  the  Greek  Church,  which  per- 
mits, even  among  the  United  Greeks,  husbands  and 
wives  separated  on  account  of  adultery  to  con- 
tract new  marriages,  is  not  a  difficulty  over  which 
the  adversaries  of  absolute  indissolubility  can  tri- 
umph. 

1.  It  is  certain  that  the  two  churches  of   East 
and  West  were  during  the  first  centuries  agreed 
on  the  interpretation  of  the  Gospel,  and  no  contro- 
versy was  ever  raised  between  them  on  the  subject 
of  the  rupture  of  the  conjugal  tie  by  adultery. 

2.  This  rupture  was  only  introduced  into  the 
Greek  Church  after  a  long  practice  of  absolute  in- 
dissolubility.    The  reason  of  this  is  attributable  to 
the  civil  laws  ;  it  was  not  till  much  later  on,  when 
they  had  been  reproved  by  the  Latin  Church  for 
this  abuse,  that  the  Greeks  thought  of  appealing 
to  the  testimony  of  Scripture  and  of  the  Fathers. 


Index  of  Principal  Errors,  igg 

3.  The  testimony  of  the  Fathers  appealed  to  by 
the  Greeks  is  wanting  in  clearness,  and  can,  for  the 
most  part,  be  given  an  orthodox  meaning  ;    in  any 
case,  it  does  not  invalidate  the  frank  declarations  of 
St.  Gregory  Nazianzen,  of  St.  John  Chrysostom, 
and  of  Theodoret,  who  condemn  the  civil  laws  from 
which  the  practice  of  divorce  has  arisen. 

4.  The  Greeks  have  always  felt  so  little  sustained 
by  Scripture  and  tradition  that  they  have  never 
dared  to  reproach  the  Latin  Church  for  her  doc- 
trine of  absolute  indissolubility,  neither  have  they 
introduced  it  even  among  the  most  futile  pretexts 
for  their  schism. 

5.  Each  time  there  has  been  a  question  of  the 
reunion  of  the  two  Churches,  under  Stephen  V., 
under  Gregory  X.,  under  Eugenius  IV.,  there  has 
never  been  any  doctrinal  dissent  concerning  ab- 
solute indissolubility. 

6.  The  Roman  Pontiffs  have  never  ceased  to  re- 
prove the  Greeks  for  this  abuse,  and  the  Greeks 
have  never  been  able  to  defend  themselves  and 
have  never  accused  the    Roman    Church,  which 
condemned  their  conduct  of  error,  although  they 
persevered   in   their  course.      From   all   this  we 
must  conclude  that  the  error  of   the  Greeks  is 
rather  in  practice  than  in  theory.     However,  since 
the  definition  of  the  Council  of  Trent  it  is  impos- 
sible to  consider  this  question  as  purely  one  of 
discipline  ;  it  is  doctrinal  and  dogmatic. 

An  attempt  has  been  made  to  explain  away  that 
part  of  the  seventh  canon  of  Session  XXIV.  thus 
rendered  :  "  If  any  one  says  that  the  Church  has 


2OO  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

been  and  is  in  error  when  she  has  taught  and 
teaches,  according  to  evangelical  and  apostolical 
doctrine,  that  the  tie  of  marriage  cannot  be  broken 
by  the  adultery  of  husband  or  wife,  that  a  mar. 
ried  person,  even  innocent,  cannot  during  the  life- 
time of  the  partner  contract  a  new  marriage,  that 
they  commit  adultery,  if  husband,  he  takes  another 
wife,  if  wife,  she  takes  another  husband  ;  let  him 
be  anathema." 

Sarpi,  Courrayer,  Launoy,  and  other  more  re- 
cent authors  assert  that  in  this  canon  it  is  purely 
a  question  of  discipline  that  is  referred  to,  which 
the  Church  can  change  according  to  the  exigencies 
of  time  and  place,  and  that  anathema  has  only  been 
pronounced  with  regard  to  this  question  against 
the  Protestants  and  Calvinists  who  dispute  the 
Church's  prerogative  of  infallibility.  Fruitless 
subtilty  !  The  Council  of  Trent  modified  its 
primitive  formula  at  the  entreaty  of  the  Venetians, 
who  demanded  that  the  population  of  the  Greek 
islands  subject  to  their  dominion  might  not  be 
directly  struck  with  anathema ;  but  its  intention 
manifestly  was  to  define  a  dogmatic  question. 
The  terms  of  the  canon  make  it  a  matter  of  faith, 
since  it  is  a  question  of  covering  with  the  infallible 
authority  of  the  Church  a  teaching  conformable 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  Gospel  and  of  the  Apostle  : 
Cum  docuit  ct  docct,  juxta  evangelicam  et  apostolicam 
doctrinam.  Whence  we  should  conclude  that  the 
canon  of  the  Council  of  Trent  is  a  dogmatic  canon, 
having  for  its  direct  object  the  infallibility  of  the 
Church  when  she  teaches  absolute  indissolubility, 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  201 

and  for  indirect  object  this  indissolubility  taught 
according  to  evangelical  and  apostolical  doctrine. 
Whoever  denies  the  infallibility  of  the  Church  in 
this  matter  is  a  heretic  and  falls  under  the  ana- 
thema. Whoever  teaches  a  doctrine  contrary  to 
that  of  the  Church  on  this  particular  point  falls 
into  error  approaching  heresy. 

Cf.  Perrone.,  Tract.  De  Matrimonio  Christiana, 
sect.  DC  Indissolubilitate  llatrinwnii  Ckristiani, 
cap.  ii.,  iii.,  iv. 

CONFERENCE  IV. 

(See  first  part) 

i.  WE  have  established  the  legislative  power  of 
the  Church  on  these  two  principles:  i.  That 
marriage  in  its  essence  is  a  sacred  thing  belonging 
to  the  forum  intcrniim,  over  which,  consequently, 
the  civil  power  has  no  right.  2.  That  in  Christian 
marriage  the  contract  is  inseparable  from  the  sac- 
rament which  places  the  conjugal  union  in  the 
hands  of  the  Church,  the  sole  dispenser  and  regu- 
lator of  sacred  things.  These  principles,  univer- 
sally admitted  in  the  Church,  were  rejected  by 
Protestantism.  We  have  quoted  the  sacrilegious 
comparison  of  Cahin,  who  places  the  institution  of 
marriage  on  the  same  footing  as  agriculture  and 
the  most  vulgar  trades.  "  All  that  comes  from 
God,  "  says  he,  "  and  none  of  it  is  sacred :  "  Non 
satis  cst  matrimonium  cssc  a  Deo,  nt  sacramcntum 
ccnscri  possit ;  nain  ctiain  agricidtura  et  ars  sutona 
est  a  Deo,  nee  tamen  est  sacramentum  (Inst.  lib.  iv., 
cap.  xix.,  §  54). 


202  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

Khcmnitz  was  not  long  in  drawing  the  conclusions 
from  this  error,  and  he  asserts  that  it  does  not 
belong  to  the  Church  but  to  the  civil  power  to 
make  laws  on  marriage.  But  the  theory  of  the 
rights  of  the  secular  power  over  the  conjugal 
union  was  not  put  forth  in  all  its  impudence  until 
theologians  and  court  jurists  sold  to  princes  the 
right  of  establishing  diriment  impediments. 

Luther  refused  this  right  to  the  Church  because 
he  only  granted  it  to  God  and  recognized  no  other 
impediments  than  those  which  He  has  established 
between  near  relations  and  which  are  particular- 
ized in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  Leviticus  (De 
captiv.  Rabyl.  De  matrimonio).  Calvin,  Bnccr,  and 
Melancht/ion  are  of  the  same  opinion.  But  other 
innovators  have  been  more  daring.  Mark  Antony 
de  Dominis,  apostate  bishop,  is  at  the  head  of  the 
flatterers  who  sold  to  the  secular  power  the  right 
of  creating  impediments  to  marriage.  His  sacri- 
legious doctrine  has  been  aggravated  by  Launoy. 
This  disguised  Lutheran  has  not  feared  to  affirm 
that  the  right  of  the  secular  power  in  this  matter 
is  so  entirely  its  own  that  the  Church  cannot 
exercise  it  without  usurpation,  unless  it  is  ceded 
to  her  by  princes.  Jus  statuendi  impedimenta, 
qua  dirimant  matrimoniuui,  ita  propria  ac  nativa 
potestate  ad  soles  reges  ac  principcs  civiles  pertinet,  ut 
Ecclesia  nequcat  sine  usurpationc,  aut  indulgcntia  et 
concessione  principum  illud  exercere  (De  rcgia  in 
Matrimonium  Potestate,  1674).  Lhuillier  has  ex-, 
posed  the  insincerity  of  Launoy,  by  showing  in 
his  work  the  numerous  alterations  of  the  texts  of 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  203 

which  he  has  been  guilty.  (In  lib.  mag.  Lannoii 
Parisicnsis  qni  inscribitur,  Rcgia  in  matrimoninm 
potcstas,  obscri'ationes,  auctorc  tlieologo  Parisiensi.} 

The  error  of  Launoy  was  vulgarized  in  Austria 
by  Benedict  Oberhauser,  professor  of  canon  law, 
with  this  modification,  that  he  reserves  to  the 
civil  power  the  right  of  making  diriment  impedi- 
ments because  it  is  mistress  of  the  contract,  and 
concedes  to  the  Church  the  right  of  legislating  in 
all  that  regards  the  sacredness  of  the  sacrament, 
without,  however,  being  able  to  decree  anything 
about  the  validity  of  the  contract.  It  was  on  these 
principles  that  the  matrimonial  legislation  of 
Joseph  II.  was  established. 

Among  Catholic  theologians  there  are  some 
who,  while  recognizing  that  the  power  of  creating 
impediments  belongs  originally  and  properly  to 
the  Church,  teach  that  this  power  is  shared  by 
the  secular  government.  Such  is  the  opinion  of 
Sanchez,  P.  Soto,  Tournely,  Collet,  and  in  modern 
times  of  M.  Carriere,  professor  at  the  seminary 
of  St.  Sulpice.  But  Carriere,  in  a  new  edition  of 
his  "  Treatise  on  Marriage,"  has  altered  his  opinion 
and  declared  his  submission  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
Holy  Apostolic  See. 

What  is  this  doctrine?  We  find  it,  to  begin 
with,  in  the  Canons  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  by 
which  the  Church  defines  that  there  are  other 
impediments  to  marriage  than  those  contained  in 
Leviticus,  and  that  she  has  the  right  to  establish 
these  impediments. 

Can.  III.  Si  qnis  dixcrit  cos  tantum  consanguinei- 


2O4  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

tatis  ct  affinitatis  gradus,  qui  Lcvitico  cxprimuntur 
posse  impcdire  matriinoniiim  contrahcndum,  ct  dirimcre 
contractum,  nee  posse  Ecclesiam  in  nonnullis  illornm 
dispensare,  ant  instituere,  ut  pi  it  res  imped iant  et  diri- 
inant ;  anathema  sit. 

Can.  IV.  Si  qnis  dixcrit  Ecchsiam  mm  potnisse 
constituerc  "impedimenta  matrimoninm  diriment ia,  vel 
in  Us  constiluendis  errasse ;  anathema  sit.  (Sess. 
xxiv.) 

In  vain  Launoy  asserts  that  this  definition  is  not 
dogmatic,  and  that  it  does  not  establish  a  truth  of 
the  faith.  It  suffices  to  consider  its  object  to  be 
convinced  of  the  contrary.  The  object  of  Canon 
IV.  is  not  a  fact  but  a  law,  consequently  a  truth. 
It  anathematizes  an  erroneous  teaching  and  estab- 
lishes at  the  same  time  the  contrary  teaching. 

Besides,  the  intention  of  the  Church  is  manifestly 
expressed  in  the  very  title  of  Session  XXIV  :  Doc- 
trina  de  Sacramento  matrimonii ;  and  the  Council 
openly  declares  that  it  desires  to  exterminate  here- 
sies and  errors  :  Hareses  et  errores  exterminandos 
duxit. 

Will  it  be  said  that  the  Church,  in  affirming  her 
right,  does  not  exclude  that  of  princes?  This 
would  be  to  misunderstand  her  constant  doctrine 
both  on  the  preeminence  of  her  legislation  and  on 
the  very  essence  of  marriage.  We  pray  the  reader 
to  read  again,  in  our  conference  on  "  The  Conjugal 
Tie,"  the  texts  of  the  holy  Fathers  which  affirm  so 
clearly  the  superior  authority  of  the  Church.  We 
add  here  the  following  words  of  Pope  Nicholas  I. : 
"  The  laws  of  emperors  can  in  no  way  prejudice 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  205 

the  evangelical,  apostolical,  and  canonical  laws : 
Civiles  imperatorum  leges  nullum  posse  prcejudi- 
cium  infer  re  evangelicis,  apostolicis  atque  canonicis 
decrctis. 

As  to  the  essence  of  marriage,  the  Church  con- 
siders it  a  sacred  thing:  Matritnonium  est  sua  vi, 
sua  natura,  sua  spontc  sacrum,  says  Pope  Leo  XIII. 
in  his  encyclical  De  Matrimonio  Christiana.  The 
Council  of  Trent  calls  it  a  sacrament,  and  Pius  IX., 
after  having  condemned  the  error  of  Nuytz,  who 
considers  the  sacrament  as  an  accessory  separable 
from  the  contract,  teaches  that  there  can  be  no 
marriage  among  the  faithful  without  there  being 
immediately  and  at  the  same  time  a  sacrament : 
Inter  fideles  matrimoninm  dari  non  posse,  quin  uno 
codemque  tempore  sit  sacramentum  (Allocut.,  27  Sept. 
1852). 

The  same  doctrine  is  taught  in  the  encyclical  of 
Leo  XIII.  Whence  it  follows,  as  we  have  remarked 
in  our  conference,  that  the  right  to  legislate  on 
marriage  belongs  to  the  Church :  "  A  contract  at 
once  natural  and  divine,"  says  Father  Perrone,  "  can 
only  be  regulated  by  God,  immediately  or  mediate- 
ly, that  is  to  say,  by  a  spiritual  authority  as  to  its 
substance  :  "  Co ntractus  naturalis  atque  divinus,  simul 
cujus  modi  est  conjugium  a  sua  institutione .  ...  A 
Deo  solo  sive  immediate  sive  mediate,  per  auctoritatem 
nempe  spiritualem,  regi  decet  quoad substantiam  suam. 
Now,  the  diriment  impediments  bearing  on  the 
conjugal  tie,  that  is  to  say,  on  the  very  substance 
of  marriage,  evidently  belong  to  the  Church.  To 
grant  to  the  secular  government  the  right  to  es- 


206  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

tablish  them  is  to  place  a  sacred  thing  at  the  mercy 
of  a  profane  power,  to  subject  divine  authority  to 
human  authority. 

Secondly,  let  us  remark  that  the  error  which 
attributes  to  the  secular  power  the  right  to  legis- 
late on  the  very  substance  of  marriage  is  founded 
on  this  other  error :  that  the  contract  is  separable 
from  the  sacrament.  Unhappily  this  error  has 
authority  with  jurists,  and  it  has  given  occasion  to 
the  detestable  practice  of  civil  marriage. 

We  do  not  intend  to  designate  under  this  name 
the  marriages  which  the  unfaithful  contract  before 
magistrates,  and  which  Pope  Innocent  III.  calls 
true  marriages,  although  they  are  not  completely 
conformable  to  the  divine  law,  which  has  raised 
the  matrimonial  union  to  the  dignity  of  a  sacra- 
ment :  Matrimonia  vera  et  non  rata. 

Likewise,  it  is  not  a  question  of  unions  contracted 
by  the  faithful  before  civil  magistrates  in  countries 
where  the  decree  of  the  Council  of  Trent  has  not 
been  promulgated.  These  unions  are  at  one  and 
the  same  time  legitimate,  and  true  sacraments: 
Matrimonia  vera  et  rata. 

We  wish  to  speak  of  marriages  contracted  before 
the  civil  authority  in  countries  where  the  decree 
of  the  Council  of  Trent,  which  exacts  for  the 
validity  of  the  sacrament  the  presence  of  the 
proper  minister,  has  been  promulgated.  In  these 
marriages  there  is  no  contract ;  modern  govern- 
ments regard  them  as  legitimate  unions,  to  which 
they  grant  all  civil  effect ;  but  they  are  in  reality 
only  shameful  and  sad  concubinage.  Prtzter  sa- 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  '  207 

cramcntum,  conjunctioncm  cnjuscumquc,  ctiain  ci-cilis 
Icgis  vi  imtain,  niliil  aliud  csse  nisi  turpcin  ac  cxitia- 
lem  concubinatum  ab  Ecclesia  tantopcrc  damnation 
(Allocut.  Pii  IX.  ad  cardinales,  27  Sept.  1852). 

We  do  not  refuse  to  the  civil  power  all  right  of 
regulation  with  regard  to  marriage,  but  this  right 
cannot  be  exercised  on  the  very  substance  of  the 
matrimonial  union.  To  verify  by  a  public  act  the 
formation  and  existence  of  the  conjugal  tie,  to  es- 
tablish certain  conditions  in  order  that  marriage 
may  obtain  its  civil  consequences,  is  the  right  of 
the  secular  power ;  but  to  assert  that  persons  are 
legitimately  married  by  a  magistrate  without  the 
concurrence  of  the  spiritual  power  is  an  error 
against  which  the  Church  protests  with  all  the 
strength  of  the  sovereign  power  over  the  very 
substance  of  marriage  which  God  has  conferred 
on  her. 

Thirdly,  in  virtue  of  her  sovereign  power,  the 
Church  has  the  right  to  judge  all  matrimonial 
causes  which  concern  the  very  substance  of  the 
conjugal  union.  Mark  Antony  de  Doininis,  Lau- 
noy,  Tauiburini,  Litta,  Nestius,  Nuytz,  attribute 
this  right  to  the  secular  po\ver.  The  canon  by 
which  the  Church  defines  her  right  does  not  ex- 
clude, say  they,  that  of  civil  tribunals.  The  Coun- 
cil of  Trent,  indeed,  expresses  itself  thus  :  Si  quis 
dixerit  causas  inatriinonialcs  non  spcctare  ad  judiccs 
ccclesiasticos,  anat Junta  sit  (Sess.  xxiv.,  can.  12).  In 
these  terms  it  condemns  those  who  refuse  to  the 
Church  the  right  to  judge  matrimonial  causes,  but 
not  those  who  assert  that  this  right  is  shared  by 


208 •  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

the  civil  power ;  for  the  Council  does  not  say  : 
Ad  solos  judices  ecclesiasticos. 

To  those  who  compare  the  canon  we  have  just 
quoted  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  on  the 
identity  of  the  contract  and  the  sacrament,  it  is 
evident  that  the  Council  had  no  need  to  exclude 
civil  judges,  because  they  can  have  no  kind  of  right 
over  a  sacred  thing.  But  the  Sovereign  Pontiff 
Pius  VI.  has  dissipated  all  doubts  on  the  subject  in 
his  letter  of  Sept.  17,  1787,  ad  Episcop.  Motulcnscm. 

He  there  speaks  as  supreme  judge  of  the  doc- 
trine :  Tanquam  is  qui  jus  habet  sitprcma  CJiristi 
ipsius  auctoritate  sibi  collata  doccndi  et  confirumndi  ; 
and  he  declares  that  the  right  defined  by  the 
Council  belongs  to  the  Church  alone,  which  has  re- 
ceived from  God  the  dispensation  of  the  sacra- 
ments ;  that  it  is  false  to  say  that  the  Council  has 
not  excluded  the  civil  power,  although  it  has  not 
made  use  of  this  expression,  ad  solos  jndices  ec- 
clesiasticos ;  that  the  spirit  and  reason  of  ecclesias- 
tical legislation  exclude  all  idea  of  exception  and 
limitation.  Finally,  he  cites  these  remarkable 
words  of  the  jurist  Van  Espen  :  Unanimi  conscnsu 
receptum  est  causas  sacramentorum  essc  mere  ccclcsias- 
ttcas,  casque  quantum  ad  substantiam  corum,  ad  judi. 
cem  eeclesiasticum  private  spectarc,  nUiilque  circa 
corum  I'aliditatem  et  invaliditatemjudicems&cularem 
posse  decernere,  eo  quod  Jiccc  natura  sua  sint  mere 
spirituals.  Et  sane  si  qu<zstio  vcrsatur  de  validitate 
ipsius  matrimonii,  solus  judex  ecclcsiasticus  est  com- 
pctens,  ipscquc  solus  de  hac  qucestionc  cognoscerc  potest 
(Jus.  cedes.,  p.  iii.,  tit.  ii.,  cap.  i.,  n.  4,  11  et  12). 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  209 

Thus  the  invalidities  or  separations  pronounced 
by  the  civil  judges  can  only  regard  the  civil  conse- 
quences of  marriage.  The  conjugal  tie  itself  and 
the  rights  it  creates  belong  to  the  forum  internum 
of  conscience  and  to  the  sole  cognizance  of  the 
Church. 

Fourthly,  how  far  does  the  power  of  the  Church 
extend  over  the  conjugal  tie  ?  If  she  can  create 
impediments  which  oppose  its  formation,  can  she 
break  it  when  it  is  formed  ?  The  answer  to  this 
question  is  not  difficult  if  it  refers  to  marriage 
consummated  by  the  carnal  union  of  husband  and 
wife.  It  is  certain  that  the  Church  cannot  dissolve 
it. 

As  to  marriage  conformable  to  the  divine  law, 
and  which  is  called  marriage  ratified  and  not  con- 
summated, it  is  of  faith  that  it  can  be  dissolved  by 
solemn  religious  vows.  The  Council  of  Trent  has 
defined  this  truth  in  Canon  VI.  of  Session  XXIV  : 
Si  quis  dixcrit  matrimonium  ratum  non  constun- 
watui/i,  per  solcinnem  rcligionis  profcssionem  alterius 
conjugum  non  dirimi ;  anathema  sit. 

This  canon  is  directed  against  Protestants,  who 
by  a  singular  contradiction,  whilst  showing  them- 
selves ready  to  divorce,  even  when  it  is  a  question 
of  consummated  marriage,  absolutely  refuse  the 
rupture  of  the  conjugal  tie  when  it  is  a  question 
of  embracing  a  more  perfect  life.  The  Jansenists 
have  imitated  the  Protestants  in  this,  and  have  pre- 
tended that  the  definition  of  the  Council  of  Trent 
is  contrary  to  Scripture  and  to  tradition.  This  is 
affirmed  by  Leridant  in  his  "  Examination  of  Two 


2 1  o  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

Questions  on  Marriage"  (p.  458  seq.).  Pite,  in  his 
"  Dissertion  on  the  Absolute  Indissolubility  of  the 
Conjugal  Tie,"  pretends  that  the  decree  of  the 
Council  of  Trent  is  void,  because  the  Fathers  had 
not  the  necessary  liberty  in  publishing  it. 

As  to  Catholic  theologians,  they  all  consider  the 
canon  of  the  Council  of  Trent  as  the  definition  of 
a  truth  of  the  faith  ;  but  their  opinions  differ  when 
they  explain  why  marriage  simply  ratified  can  be 
dissolved  by  the  profession  of  religion. 

Some,  such  as  the  theologians  of  Salamanca, 
Bellarmine,  Habert,  Drouin,  etc.,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  St.  Thomas,  appeal  to  natural  law.  It 
should  always  be  permitted,  says  the  Angelic  Doc- 
tor, to  pass  from  a  less  to  a  more  perfect  state. 
The  benefit  of  children  does  not  suffer  from  it,  be- 
cause the  marriage  is  not  consummated  ;  not  the 
honor  of  the  woman,  because  she  keeps  her  virgin- 
ity ;  nor  the  natural  rights  of  the  married  pair,  equal 
in  this  matter  on  one  side  and  the  other.  Before  the 
consummation  of  marriage  there  is  bet\veen  hus- 
band and  wife  only  a  spiritual  tie.  Now,  this  spir- 
itual tie  can  be  broken  by  spiritual  death,  as  the 
carnal  tie  is  broken  by  physical  death  :  Ante  car- 
nalcm  copulam  est  inter  conjugcs  tan  fit  in  I'inaduiti 
spirituale  ;  sed  post  ctiam  est  inter  eos  vinculum  car- 
nale.  Et  idea,  sicut  post  car nalcin,  it  a  per  ingressum 
religionis,  vinculum,  quod  est  ante  carnalcm  copn/am, 
solvitur ;  qnia  religio  est  qua  dam  mors  spiritualis, 
qua  aliquis  sceculo  moriens  vivit  Deo  (Sttnun.  TIicol., 
supp.,  quasst.  61,  a.  2). 

Others,  such  as  Kugler,  Antoine,  Simonet,  La 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  211 

Luzerne,  Pothier,  under  the  leadership  of  Suarez, 
advocate  purely  and  simply  the  ecclesiastical  law. 
The  rupture  of  the  conjugal  tie  in  the  case  in  ques- 
tion is  the  application  to  bind  and  to  loose,  which 
Christ  has  confided  to  His  Church.  To  these  two 
opinions  grave  difficulties  can  be  opposed  ;  there- 
fore Sanchez,  Pontius,  Tournely,  Billuart,  Collet, 
and  nearly  all  modern  divines,  supported  by  the 
great  authority  of  Benedict  XIV.,  appeal  to  the 
divine  law.  In  promulgating  the  law  of  indissolu- 
bility,  Christ,  they  say,  has  made  one  reservation. 
The  two  texts  containing  His  reply  to  the  Phar- 
isees must  be  placed  side  by  side :  Jam  non  sunt 
duo  sed  una  caro,  and  quod  Dcus  conjunxit  homo  non 
separet.  This  means  to  say  that  the  indissolubil- 
ity  of  the  conjugal  tie  is  only  absolute  when  man 
and  woman  have  become  one  flesh  by  the  consum- 
mation of  marriage.  Such  is  the  interpretation  of 
the  Church. 

Protestants  and  Jansenists  in  vain  appeal  to 
Scripture.  They  have  no  right  to  determine  its 
meaning  according  to  their  private  opinion.  This 
right  belongs  only  to  the  Church.  Her  tradition- 
al practice  and  her  definitions  are  the  rule  of  our 
faith. 

Fifthly,  the  question  of  the  rupture  of  marriage 
ratified  presents  more  difficulties  on  account  of 
other  grave  reasons  besides  the  profession  of  re- 
ligion. Sanchez  gives  a  long  list  of  ancient  theo- 
logians who  refuse  to  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  the 
right  of  dissolution,  and  he  says  of  their  opinion 
that  it  is  the  most  probable.  Among  modern 


2 1 2  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

theologians,  Pontius,  Sylvius,  Tournely,  Drouin, 
Collet,  and  others,  have  embraced  this  opinion. 

But  we  must  remark  that  the  arguments  they 
use  to  prove  it  are  partly  the  same  as  those  which 
heretics  use  and  abuse  against  the  decree  of  the 
Council  of  Trent.  Further,  they  are  obliged  to  ac- 
knowledge that  many  times,  during  many  centuries, 
the  Sovereign  Pontiffs  have  dissolved  the  ties  of 
marriage  before  its  consummation,  without  pro- 
testation on  the  part  of  the  Church.  In  denying 
that  they  had  the  right  to  do  so,  are  they  not  con- 
demned by  this  general  principle,  which  may  be 
considered  an  axiom :  "  To  doubt  the  power  of  the 
Pope  after  he  has  dispensed,  is  a  kind  of  sacrilege  ; 
for  it  is  reproaching  Christ  with  not  having  pro- 
vided what  is  necessary  for  the  government  of  His 
Church:"  De  pontificiispotestate,postquam  dispensavit 
dubitare,  instar  sacrilegii  est.  Est  enim  Cliristo  quasi' 
exprobrare  quod  non  satis  Ecclesice  suce  providisset 
(Tit.  De  convers.  conjug.,  cap.  vii.). 

We  must  consider  as  true  the  opinion  of  theo- 
logians, who,  with  Suarez,  Bellarmine,  the  school 
of  Salamanca,  Kugler,  and  nearly  all  canonists,  teach 
that  the  Pope  has  the  right  to  dissolve  marriage 
before  its  consummation  for  grave  and  just  causes. 
There  is  nothing  more  precise  than  the  declara- 
tions of  Benedict  XIV.  on  this  question  :  Cessat 
quoqueindissolubilitas  MATRIMONII  RATI  in  aliis  omni- 
bus casibus  extra  professionein  rcligiosam,  in  qnibus 
Siimmus  Pontifex^jiistis  et  gravissimis  causis,  censct 
cjus  dissolutions  csse  locwn,  ita  suadente  Tridcntino, 
ita  cxposccntc  obscrvantia,  ita  deinuni  convincente  con- 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  213 

tinuata  plurimn  sceculorum  praxi  sedis  apostolica,  ex 
quibus  interpretatio  juris  divini  optime  colligi  potest 
(Quasst.  canon.,  q.  cxlvi.,  n.  36). 

Nullam  de  potestatc  stimuli  Pontificis  woven  am- 
plius  posse  qucestionem  in  eo,  quod  attinet  ad  dispensan- 
diim  super  matrimonio  rato  et  non  consummato,  cum 
hodie  opinio  affirmativa  sit  communis  inter  tlieologos 
et  canonistas,  et  in  praxi  reccpta,  uti  notoriuin  est 
(Ibid,  quasst.  cccclxxix.). 

Before  so  great  an  authority  it  would  be  rash  to 
maintain  the  first  opinion.  (Cf.  Perrone,  Tract.  DC 
Matrimonio  Christiano,  lib.  iii.,  cap.  v.,  De  dissolu- 
tionc  matrimonii  rati  non  consummati^) 

CONFERENCE  VI. 

(See  the  first  part.) 

FROM  the  origin  of  Christianity  we  have  seen 
virginity  flourishing  in  the  Church.  St.  Justin 
and  Athenagoras,  whom  we  have  quoted,  testify 
to  the  eagerness  with  which  a  great  number  of 
Christians  embraced  continence.  We  may  add  to 
their  testimony  that  of  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
Tertullian,  Origen,  and  St.  Cyprian.  This  multi- 
plication of  a  chaste  race  in  the  midst  of  a  corrupt 
society  was  a  strange  thing  for  the  heathen  world, 
where  it  was  so  difficult  to  obtain  the  continence 
of  a  few  priestesses,  even  by  loading  them  with 
gifts  and  honors  and  suspending  over  their  heads 
the  most  terrible  threats.  They  found  it  difficult 
to  understand  the  mysterious  attraction  which 
could  induce  so  many  persons  of  both  sexes  to 


214  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

sever  themselves  from  the  pleasures  of  the  flesh. 
Apologists  made  use  of  it  to  show  the  excellence 
of  Christianity,  capable  of  producing  so  great  a 
wonder.  Soon  they  saw  themselves  obliged  to 
defend  virginity  against  the  attacks  of  heresy. 
A  monk,  Jovinian,  after  having  passed  some 
years  in  a  monastery  at  Milan,  dedicated  to  the 
practice  of  an  austere  life,  under  the  guidance  of 
St.  Ambrose,  became  disgusted  with  his  condition, 
and,  like  all  apostates,  began  to  cry  it  down.  He 
taught,  amongst  other  errors,  that  virginity  was 
not  more  perfect  than  marriage,  and  began  to  in- 
sult the  model  of  virgins,  the  most  holy  Mother  of 
Christ.  Passing  from  Milan  to  Rome,  he  had  a 
great  number  of  followers.  Many  persons,  who 
till  then  had  lived  in  continence  and  mortification, 
renounced  a  kind  of  life  which  they  were  told 
was  unprofitable  for  their  salvation  and  perfection, 
married,  and  gave  themselves  up  to  an  effeminate 
and  voluptuous  life. 

Jovinian  was  condemned  by  Pope  Siricius  and 
by  a  Council  of  Milan,  presided  over  by  St.  Am- 
brose, in  the  year  390.  St.  Jerome,  in  his  writings 
against  the  heresiarch,  speaks  writh  all  the  vehe- 
mence of  his  dialectics  and  of  his  style  to  such 
a  degree  that  he  was  accused  of  condemning  mar- 
riage. The  holy  doctor  showed  that  his  ideas 
had  been  badly  interpreted  and  expressed  himself 
more  exactly. 

Protestants,  heirs  of  the  error  of  Jovinian,  have 
renewed  against  St.  Jerome  the  reproaches  of  the 
disciples  of  heresy,  and  have  pretended  that  he  con- 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  215 

tradicts  himself.  But  as  Bergier  justly  remarks, 
to  unsay  or  retract  what  one  recognizes  to  have 
been  badly  expressed  is  not  a  contradiction.  If 
heretics  were  sincere  enough  to  do  the  same,  far 
from  blaming,  we  should  applaud  them.  St. 
Jerome  is  not  in  this  position  (Diet,  de  tJieoL,  art. 
Jovinianists}. 

Protestantism,  not  content  with  republishing  the 
reproaches  of  the  Jovinianists  against  St.  Jerome, 
has  attacked  the  early  Christians  and  the  Fathers 
who  taught  them,  asserting  that  they  were  mis- 
taken. Luther  in  this  has  been  surpassed  by  his 
disciples.  The  patriarch  of  the  Reformation  ap- 
pealed against  celibacy  and  virginity  to  the  law  of 
multiplication ;  but  since  then  it  has  been  found 
that  the  zeal  of  Christians  for  this  holy  state  arose 
from  a  false  prejudice  of  the  most  pernicious  fanat- 
icism, that  it  was  an  error  engrafted  on  other 
errors.  It  arose,  they  say,  from  a  stupid  admira- 
tion for  all  that  demands  effort ;  from  an  ambition 
to  be  distinguished  and  to  receive  honors ;  from 
the  rivalry  of  sects  which  then  divided  Christian- 
ity, especially  of  those  who  admit  two  principles, 
one  good,  the  other  evil ;  from  the  melancholy  pro- 
duced by  climate  ;  from  the  desire  to  refute  the 
false  accusations  of  the  heathen  ;  from  the  system 
of  the  pre-existence  of  souls ;  from  the  opinion  of 
the  Neo-Platonists,  who  maintained  the  necessity  of 
continence  and  mortification  in  order  to  be  united 
to  God. 

Nothing  can  be  more  frivolous  or  more  foolish 
than  these  assertions,  i.  To  admire  the  effort  of 


2 1 6  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

virtue  which  seeks  to  establish  the  empire  of  the 
soul  over  the  flesh  is  not  at  all  so  stupid  a  thing  ; 
it  seems  to  us  far  more  stupid  not  to  be  impressed 
by  it.  2.  The  retired  life  of  virgins  scarcely  re- 
sembles ambition  for  honors,  and  everybody  knows 
that  the  principal  virtue  recommended  by  those 
who  directed  them  was  humility,  which  they  con- 
sidered the  first  rampart  of  chastity.  3.  It  was  not 
at  all  by  a  spirit  of  rivalry  that  the  first  Christians 
embraced  virginity,  since  the  first  heretics  claimed 
to  be  the  enemies  of  the  flesh.  Virginity  favored 
their  error.  4.  The  melancholy  of  climate  is  a  new 
discovery.  It  would  prove  that  all  climates  are 
melancholy,  because  there  have  been  virgins  in  all 
countries.  5.  Even  if  Christians  should  have 
wished  by  the  practice  of  continence  to  confound 
the  heathen  who  accused  them  of  revolting  im- 
purity, what  harm  would  there  have  been  ?  It 
was  much  the  best  way  of  refuting  the  calumny. 
6.  It  is  ridiculous  to  consider  virginity  as  a  con- 
sequence of  the  belief  in  the  pre-existence  of  souls. 
Why  practise  virtue  from  a  motive  derived  from 
an  error  condemned  by  the  Church,  when  there  is 
within  our  reach  a  dogma  taught  by  the  Church 
which  sufficiently  explains  the  generous  efforts  of 
the  soul  devoted  to  protest  by  chastity  against  the 
original  corruption  of  nature?  7.  For  more  than 
a  century  St.  Justin,  Athenagoras,  and  others  had 
rejoiced  over  the  multitude  of  virgins,  celibates, 
religious,  and  ascetics,  which  Christianity  had  pro- 
duced in  all  classes  of  society:  when  Neo-Platonism 
made  its  appearance,  Hennas,  Tertullian,  and  St. 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  2  \  7 

Cyprian,  the  apologists  of  virginity,  were  strangers 
to  this  school  and  founded  their  doctrine  on  Script- 
ure. Whence  it  follows  that  this  last  hypothesis, 
dear  to  Moshein  and  Bruker,  is  pure  imagination. 

Physiologists  and  economists  have  discussed 
this  important  and  delicate  question.  Heresy  has 
been  reinforced  by  them.  If  we  believe  them,  the 
state  of  celibacy  and  virginity  is  a  state  contrary 
to  nature  and  to  the  interests  of  society. 

Contrary  to  nature,  because  those  who  condemn 
themselves  by  a  vow  to  absolute  continence  un- 
dertake to  struggle  against  one  of  the  most  impe- 
rious temptations  of  the  flesh,  and  become  either 
prevaricators  or  consumptives.  Happily  this  as- 
sertion is  not  a  scientific  oracle  for  conscientious 
physiologists.  A  man  who  has  resolved  never  to 
drink  wine  can  become  accustomed  to  this  priva- 
tion, and  is  certainly  less  exposed  to  drunkenness 
than  one  who  drinks  and  finds  it  good.  The  flesh 
exacts  in  proportion  to  what  it  receives.  With  the 
libertine,  his  appetites  become  insatiable. 

Such  is  the  case  of  the  shameful  celibacy  which 
in  our  conference  we  have  delivered  up  to  the  con- 
tempt of  honest  men.  To  discipline  the  flesh 
by  temperance,  to  carry  temperance  to  auster- 
ity, is  to  assure  the  empire  of  the  soul  over  the 
body  and  elevate  one's  self  above  those  imperious 
needs  of  which  physiologists,  the  enemies  of  con- 
tinence, make  such  a  bugbear.  If  you  add  to 
austerity  prayer  and  grace,  which  occupy  a  large 
place  in  virginity,  it  is  hard  to  see  why  the  man 
or  woman  who  is  bound  by  the  vow  of  chastity 


2 1 8  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

should  fatally  become  prevaricators.  Those  who 
assert  this  are  people  who  encourage  the  desires  of 
the  flesh  instead  of  preventing  them.  As  to  the 
consumption  which  may  result  from  absolute  con- 
tinence, it  is  pure  imagination,  against  which  the 
ideas  of  the  most  illiterate,  the  constant  experience 
of  physiology,  and  the  figures  of  statistics  protest. 

There  are  in  the  human  body  organs  essential  for 
the  support  of  life  which  cannot  relax  their  actions 
without  the  entire  organization  being  shattered 
to  its  very  foundations.  It  is  the  same  with  the 
nervous  system,  which  extends  its  empire  both 
over  the  life  of  relation  and  over  that  of  nutrition  ; 
for  it  communicates  life  and  animation  to  the 
whole  system.  But  there  are  organs  whose  activ- 
ity is  limited.  They  can  possibly  suspend  their 
functional  activity  without  the  general  life  suffer- 
ing much  from  their  inaction. 

The  degradation  of  mind,  the  exhaustion  of 
body  with  which  continence  is  menaced  in  the 
name  of  science,  are  denied  by  science.  She  finds 
in  continence  a  source  of  energy  and  vigor  for 
organic  as  well  as  for  intellectual  life. 

Statistics  agree  with  physiology.  It  is  true 
that  according  to  certain  calculations  the  average . 
of  life  in  celibacy  is  below  that  of  married  people ; 
but  in  these  calculations  are  included  all  who 
do  not  marry,  whatever  their  constitution  or  their 
habits.  Putting  aside  those  whose  natural  infirm- 
ities condemn  them  to  celibacy,  those  who  shirk  the 
duties  of  marriage  to  indulge  without  reserve  in 
libertinage,  and  only  considering  those  who  out  of 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  219 

love  for  virtue  embrace  the  state  of  virginity,  the 
average  of  life  is  raised.  It  has  been  proved  that 
anchorites  lived  to  an  average  of  76  years,  priests 
and  religious  of  both  sexes,  from  58  to  63  years. 

In  the  learned  work  of  Doctor  Duffieux,  "  Nature 
and  Virginity,"  will  be  found  technical  details  on 
this  interesting  question  which  I  cannot  give  here. 
But  I  cannot  resist  the  pleasure  of  quoting  the 
beautiful  letter  written  by  Pere  Lacordaire  to  this 
author  to  thank  him  for  the  gift  of  his  book. 

Toulouse^  July  31,1854. 

"SlR  : — I  have  read  your  work,  "  Nature  and  Vir- 
ginity," and  I  hasten  to  testify  to  you  my  satisfac- 
tion. You  have  supported  with  arguments  drawn 
from  science  a  thesis  morally  evident,  but  \vhich 
passion  will  attack  to  the  end  of  the  world,  and 
you  have  done  so  with  a  clearness,  moderation, 
prudence,  and  talent,  which  I  sincerely  admire.  In 
spite  of  the  necessary  technical  details,  it  seems  to 
me  that  your  book  cannot  offend  a  pure  heart. 
You  have  said  what  was  needful  to  be  understood 
by  learned  men,  and  your  science  has  remained 
sufficiently  chaste  to  instruct  without  peril,  it  ap- 
pears to  me,  those  who  are  not  initiated  in  the 
mysteries  of  the  human  body. 

"  You  have  furnished  my  conviction  with  proofs 
of  which  it  was  ignorant,  which  personally  are 
useless  to  me,  but  which  will  enlighten  minds  more 
sensitive  to  scientific  demonstration  than  to  reasons 
drawn  from  experience  and  from  moral  order, 
which,  also,  you  have  not  neglected.  It  is  an  emi- 


22O  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

nent  service  rendered  to  a  virtue  which  is  the  very 
basis  of  the  regeneration  of  humanity.  Humanity 
is  raised  or  lowered  in  proportion  as  continence 
increases  or  decreases  among  men  ;  it  is  the  prin- 
ciple of  all  faith,  of  all  strength,  of  all  incorrupti- 
bility, and  a  people  who  loses  it  cannot  escape 
from  decay  and  servitude.  How  can  this  virtue 
be  a  crime  against  nature  ?  It  is  incontinence  which 
is  contrary  to  nature,  the  consequence  and  the 
punishment  of  sin,  the  most  horrible  disorder  be- 
queathed to  the  human  race,  and  an  evident  mark 
of  its  degradation. 

"  It  is  not  true  to  say  that  continence  is  difficult 
for  the  greater  part  of  our  species.  Women,  you 
have  remarked,  generally  support  it  with  a  facility 
honorable  to  themselves,  and  which  is  explained  by 
the  very  sensitiveness  with  which  they  are  gifted. 
The  more  loving  the  heart,  the  less  it  seeks  the  pleas- 
ures of  the  body,  and  reciprocally  the  more  chaste 
the  body,  the  more  delicate  and  tender  the  heart 
becomes.  I  have  never  met  with  a  loving  young 
man  among  those  who  give  way  to  the  debauches 
of  the  imagination  and  the  senses. 

"  Women  are  not  the  only  ones  to  whom  con- 
tinence is  easy.  I  have  often  been  astonished  at 
how  little  was  needed  to  withdraw  a  young  man 
from  depravity.  Flight  from  bad  companions, 
leaving  off  dangerous  reading,  a  sober  life,  serious 
work,  a  continual  practice  of  prayer,  confession, 
Communion,  and  works  of  charity,  suffice  to  trans- 
form hearts  which  thought  themselves  incurable; 
and  those  who  are  not  cured,  or  only  slightly,  owe 


Index  of  Principal  Errors.  22 1 

it  to  an  idle  life,  full  of  pleasure.  There  may  be 
exceptions  belonging  to  natural  temperament ;  but 
I  am  convinced  that  a  great  number  of  men  would 
live  easily  in  absolute  continence  if  they  lived  after 
a  Christian  manner.  .  .  .  The  longevity  of  priests 
and  of  religious  sufficiently  testifies  that  this  vir- 
tue, which  is  a  principle  of  the  spiritual  life,  is  also 
a  most  admirable  hygienic  measure  for  the  body. 

"  You  have  said  all  this,  sir,  much  better  than  I, 
and  I  only  add  the  testimony  of  my  experience  to 
the  authority  of  your  scientific  deductions. 

"Accept  my  thanks  for  your  beautiful  and  excel- 
lent work  as  well  as  the  homage  of  my  sincere 
regard. 

I  have  the  honor  to  remain,  sir,  your  most  hum- 
ble and  obedient  servant, 

"  F.  H.  D.  LACORDAIRE." 

Economists  reproach  celibacy  and  virginity  with 
being  contrary  to  the  interests  of  society.  We 
have  replied  to  this  reproach  in  our  conference 
by  remarking  that  there  are  many  ways  of  being 
fecund,  and  that  the  service  of  the  multiplication 
of  the  species  can  be  largely  compensated  in  society 
by  other  domestic  and  public  services. 

Nevertheless,  economists  assert  that  celibacy 
and  virginity  arrest  the  increase  of  the  population. 
May  we  be  permitted  to  ask  them  if  it  would  not 
be  more  appropriate  to  find  fault  with  libertinage? 
Here  is  the  true  cause  of  the  arresting  and  falling 
off  which  are  considered  the  sinister  precursors  of 
the  decay  and  ruin  of  nations.  Suppress  what  is 


222  Index  of  Principal  Errors. 

evidently  immoral  before  you  attack  a  virtue  which 
by  its  example  elevates  the  standard  of  morality, 
and  contributes  more  than  is  thought  to  the  multi- 
plication of  species  and  to  the  health  of  generations. 
We  consider  we  are  able  to  affirm  that  among 
the  nations  who  know  how  to  obey  the  law  of  God 
in  marriage  and  in  its  calls  to  the  special  state  of 
celibacy  and  virginity, the  population,  far  from  de- 
creasing, increases  in  a  wise  proportion.  Celibacy 
and  virginity  maintain  a  necessary  equilibrium,  and 
their  service  of  devotedness  has  precisely  the  de- 
sign of  remedying  the  miseries  from  which  families 
that  are  too  numerous  suffer.  And  again,  econo- 
mists should  agree  among  themselves.  Enemies 
of  virginity,  they  accuse  it  of  diminishing  life,  and 
on  the  other  hand  they  complain  of  the  excess  of 
life. 

Marriage  is  respectable  only  when  it  obeys 
the  law  of  God  ;  and  conscience  teaches  us  that,  if 
its  fecundity  must  be  measured,  it  should  be  by  a 
virtue,  and  not  by  an  execrable  vice. 


ANALYTICAL    TABLE   OF  CONTENTS. 

I. — THE  SANCTITY  OF  MARRIAGE. 

FIRST,  in  its  primitive  institution  by  God,  the 
Creator  of  humanity ;  secondly,  in  its  exaltation 
by  Christ,  the  author  of  the  sacraments. — I.  Uni- 
versal marriage  in  nature  ;  it  is  full  of  venerable 
mystery  ;  these  mysteries  increase  with  life. — 
Marriage  of  our  first  parents. — This  is  a  typical 
marriage  ;  we  must  consider  its  essence,  for  to  this 
fundamental  truth  are  allied  the  most  important 
questions  of  the  rights  and  duties  of  which  we 
shall  speak. — Marriage  is  the  most  exalted,  the 
most  venerable,  the  most  peculiar  of  contracts  in 
its  object,  its  end,  and  its  motive. — Nevertheless, 
this  contract  is  not  the  very  essence  of  marriage. 
—What  is  this  essence  ? — What  powers  concur 
for  the  formation  of  the  conjugal  tie  ? — How  is  this 
tie  sacred  by  its  own  strength,  naturally  and  of  it- 
self ?  — II.  Nature  has  made  marriage  a  holy  thing  ; 
it  is  a  still  more  holy  thing  if  we  consider  the  dig- 
nity of  the  sacrament. —  A  glance  of  what  marriage 
would  have  been  in  a  state  of  innocence. — How 
it  was  depraved  in  the  course  of  centuries.— 
How  Jesus  Christ  came  to  restore  it. — How  the 
apostles  accomplished  His  design. — The  doctrine 
of  marriage  deposited  for  the  instruction  of  all 
Christian  generations  in  the  epistles  of  St.  Paul. 


223 


224  Analytical  Table  of  Contents. 

—Teaching  of  tradition,  doctrine  of  the  Church 
on  marriage. — In  what  this  sacrament  consists. — 
Who  are  its  ministers  ? — How  the  sacrament  contin- 
ues in  the  conjugal  tie.  What  is  the  grace  it  pro- 
duces ? — Conclusion  :  Marriage  is  a  holy  thing.— 
Men  must  not  touch  it  irreverently,  .  .  .  pp.  7-34. 

II. — THE  CONJUGAL  TIE. 

THE  conjugal  tie  is  the  very  essence  of  marriage  ; 
it  is  a  sacred  tie  in  itself,  become  more  sacred  by 
the  institution  of  the  sacrament ;  a  tie  which  is 
not  divided,  a  tie  which  is  not  broken  ;  such  are 
its  properties  studied  in  these  two  propositions : — 
First,  the  indissoluble  unity  of  the  conjugal  tie 
is  a  divine  law;  secondly,  this  law  is  in  nature 
a  law  of  progress  and  of  perfection. — I.  How 
God  manifests  His  will  in  the  typical  marriage 
of  our  first  parents ;  how  His  law,  not  express 
and  imperious  as  it  will  become  later  on,  is  re- 
spected by  the  generations  sprung  from  the  prim- 
itive pair. — Tolerance  of  God  with  regard  to  po- 
lygamy and  divorce ;  the  reasons  for  this  toler- 
ance.— The  tolerance  of  God  with  regard  to  the 
nations  of  antiquity  does  not  cause  Him  to  forget 
His  first  design  in  the  institution  of  marriage. 
How  unity  and  indissolubility  are  strengthened 
and  asserted  by  the  facts  and  teaching  which  shall 
cement  the  Christian  restoration  to  the  primitive  in- 
stitution.— How  Jesus  Christ  restores  the  indissolu- 
ble unity  of  the  conjugal  tie,  and  how  He  makes  it 
the  law  of  the  new  world  which  He  has  redeemed. 
—  Triumph  of  this  law  in  the  Church  until  the  ap- 


Analytical  Table  of  Contents.  225 

pearance  of  Protestantism. — How  the  Council  of 
Trent  has  decided  the  dogmatic  formula  of  the  law 
and  has  placed  it  under  the  protection  of  anath- 
ema.— Reasons  for  this  law  published  by  Christ : 

—it  was,  first,  His  right  as  Creator  ;  secondly,  His 
right  as  Redeemer ;  thirdly,  His  right  as  Benefac- 
tor; fourthly,  His  right  as  Exemplar. — Conclu- 
sion :  The  law  should  be  respected,  even  were 
there  not  seen  in  the  world  of  nature  any  aspi- 
ration, anv  law  which  may  justify  its  holv  auster- 
ity :  but  nature  gives  to  this  law  its  full  acquies- 
cence, for  it  is  a  law  of  progress  and  of  perfection. 

—II.  What  we  understand  by  nature. — God  hav- 
ing created  man  perfect  and  master  of  the  world, 
it  was  suitable  that  he  should  be  distinguished  in 
the  generating  act  by  the  most  perfect  of  all 
unions :  this  union  is  indissoluble  marriage. — The 
law  of  the  indissoluble  unity  of  marriage  is  a  law 
of  progress  and  of  perfection:  i.  Because  it  is 
the  law  suited  to  true  love  ; — developments. — 2. 
Because  it  is  a  school  of  virtue ; — developments; — 
3.  Because  it  is  the  cement  of  the  family  and  the 
honor  of  human  society  : — developments. — Apos- 
trophe to  the  pretended  men  of  progress. — The 
men  of  progress  are  the  apostles  and  faithful  ob- 
servers of  the  indissoluble  unity  of  the  conjugal 
tie pp.  $5-60. 

III. — DIVORCE. 

IN  this  conference  is  shown  the  counter-proof 
of  the  truths  already  explained. — The  adversaries 
of  the  divine  law  agree  with  us  on  the  progres- 


226  Analytical  Table  of  Contents. 

sive  character  of  monogamy,  and  on  the  disadvan- 
tages and  inconveniences  of  polygamy. — It  is  very 
different  when  it  is  a  question  of  the  indissolubility 
of  the  conjugal  tie,  which  they  pretend  is  a  tyran- 
nical law,  that  must  be  replaced  for  the  alleviation 
of  modern  society  by  the  faculty  of  divorce.  We 
will  show :  i.  That  the  reasons  appealed  to  against 
the  divine  law  are  incapable  of  shaking  it; — 2. 
That  divorce,  by  which  they  desire  to  replace  this 
law,  is  worse  than  all  the  evils  for  which  they 
hold  indissolubility  responsible,  and  that  it  is  for 
human  society  a  principle  of  decay. — I.  Character 
of  general  laws. — They  should  not  be  abrogated  on 
account  of  their  inconveniences. — Examination  of 
the  grievances  invoked  by  the  adversaries  of  the 
divine  law  against  the  indissolubility  of  marriage  : 

1.  The  law  of  indissolubility  outrages  human  lib- 
erty, which  it  enchains  even  to  slavery. — Reply— 

2.  The  law  of  indissolubility  tends   to   frustrate 
the   principal   end   of   marriage. — Reply — 3.  The 
law  of  indissolubility  exposes  those  whom  it  ir- 
revocably unites  to  being  unjustly  and  hopeless- 
ly deprived  of  the  happiness  to  'which  they  have 
a   right    on   entering    into   conjugal    society ;    it 
exasperates  and  urges  them  to  crime. — Reply.— 
II.  Divorce  is  worse  than  all  the  evils  for  which 
they  would  make  indissolubility  responsible,  and  is 
consequently  a  principle  of  decay. — Beautiful  and 
powerful  words  of   Leo  XIII.  on  this  subject.— 
Everything    suffers   from    divorce:     i.  Marriage 
itself. — 2.  Those    who   marry.— 3.  Children,   fam- 
ilies, the  whole  of  society. — Developments. — How 


Analytical  Table  oj  Contents.  227 

easy  it  is  to  understand  after  these  developments 
that  divorce  is  a  principle  of  decay. — To  those 
who  accuse  us  of  making  here  a  case  of  a  ten- 
dency, we  reply  by  history :  i .  Divorce  in  anti- 
quity.— 2.  Divorce  in  Christian  society  since  the 
appearance  of  Protestantism. — If  divorce  become 
the  habit  of  our  society,  our  decay  will  be  deeper 
and  more  shameful  than  any  historical  decay,  be- 
cause we  shall  fall  from  a  greater  height. — The 
necessity  for  true  Christians  and  sensible  men  to 
proclaim,  in  their  manners  more  than  in  their  dis- 
course, that  we  cannot  separate  what  God  has 
joined, pp.  61-87. 

IV.— LEGISLATION  ON  MARRIAGE. 

PRETENSION  of  the  secular  power  to  reply  to  the 
demands  of  the  adversaries  of  the  divine  law  ; 
it  desires  that  marriage  should  be  the  concern  of 
the  State  before  being  the  concern  of  any  Religion 
and  any  Church  ;  it  desires  that  the  laws  and  reg- 
ulations of  religious  society  should  bend  before 
the  laws  and  regulations  of  the  State,  i.  Against 
this  pretension  of  the  secular  power  it  is  estab- 
lished that  the  legislation  on  marriage  as  to  its 
essence  and  its  essential  properties  belongs  to  God 
alone  and  to  His  Church. — 2.  This  truth  proved, 
it  is  shown  with  what  wisdom  and  with  what  pow- 
er the  Church  proceeds  in  her  matrimonial  legis- 
lation.— I.  Refer  to  the  truths  explained  in  the 
preceding  conferences  with  regard  to  the  essence 
of  marriage. — The  principle  laid  down,  that  all  the 
strength,  all  the  reason  of  marriage  is  in  the  tie 


228  Analytical  Table  of  Contents. 

formed  between  man  and  woman  by  the  mutual 
giving  and  accepting  of  their  persons  ;  that  this 
tie  is  marriage  itself,  and  it  is  always  God  who 
makes  it.  This  is  shown  thus :  I.  That  the  secular 
power  has  no  right  over  what  is  given  in  marriage ; 
2.  That  what  man  makes  by  giving  himself  does 
not  concern  it ;  consequently,  that  marriage,  even 
outside  the  Christan  ordinance,  is,  as  to  its  essence 
and  fundamental  properties,  subject  to  the  law  of 
nature  and  the  law  of  God,  and  is  independent  of 
all  civil  law. — The  incompetency  of  the  secular 
power  is  still  more  manifest  if  we  consider  that 
marriage  is  a  sacrament. — Inseparability  of  the 
contract  and  the  sacrament. — Marriage  being 
chiefly  a  sacred  thing,  the  civil  power  can  have  no 
authority  over  its  essence  and  its  fundamental 
properties. — What  the  limits  of  the  legislative 
power  of  the  secular  government  with  regard  to 
marriage  are. — The  essence,  the  intrinsic  proper- 
ties, the  tie  of  marriage  transformed  and  elevated 
by  Christ,  can  only  proceed  from  a  sacred  author- 
ity.— This  authority  is  the  Church. — Detail  of  her 
power. — II.  The  Church,  invested  with  a  sacred 
power,  after  the  manner  of  legislators  worthy  of 
the  name,  knows  how  to  unite  wisdom  and  force 
in  the  preventive,  merciful,  and  avenging  meas- 
ures which  she  takes  to  protect  and  establish  the 
venerable  institution  of  matrimony. — i.  Wisdom.— 
The  philosophy  of  impediments. — All  the  Church's 
legislation  on  this  point  is  made  in  the  interests  of 
liberty — of  the  multiplication  and  health  of  human 
generations — of  social  unity — of  the  security  and 


Analytical  Table  of  Contents.  229 

peace  of  the  domestic  hearth,  of  the  purity  of 
faith,  of  the  rights  of  God  and  the  rights  of  man — 
of  the  honor  and  good  reputation  of  marriage 
itself. — Developments. — 2.  Force. — The  coura- 
geous and  persevering  resistance  of  the  Church  has 
triumphed  :  i.  over  the  opposition  of  the  laws  ;— 
over  the  licentiousness  of  the  great. — Consequen- 
ces of  this  resistance. — The  Church  has  saved  the 
holy  cause  of  matrimony, pp.  88- 1 14. 

V.— THE  PROFANATION  OF  MARRIAGE. 

IT  is  shown  in  this  conference  that  the  greater 
number  of  those  who  complain  .of  the  divine  law 
only  suffer  from  it  because  they  have  outraged  it 
and  have  made  it  for  themselves  the  chastisement 
of  a  profanation. — Three  great  benefits  of  mar- 
riage :  Proles,  Fides,  Sacrament  tun — that  is  to  say : 
children,  the  sweets  and  consolations  of  faithful 
intimacy,  the  grace  of  the  sacrament. — How  these 
three  great  benefits  are  profaned. — I.  Fecundity 
is  a  blessing  from  God ;  He  has  promised  it  to 
those  whom  He  loves. — Spectacle  of  the  family 
where  children  multiply. — How  the  Christian  who 
understands  this  blessing  knows  how  to  enter  into 
the  designs  of  God,  and  prepares  with  a  profound 
respect  for  himself  for  the  honor  of  paternity.— 
How,  on  the  contrary,  there  are  miserable  men 
who  profane  the  first  benefit  by  the  premature 
exhaustion  of  their  own  life. — Another  more  com- 
mon profanation  is  the  crime  of  those  who  limit 
their  paternity. — How  God  avenges  this  crime. — 
His  chastisements  are  due  to  profaners,  not  only 


230  Analytical  Table  of  Contents. 

because  they  have  offended  God  and  cheated  na- 
ture, but  because  they  have  betrayed  their  country. 
—Developments. — II.  What  fidelity  is. — How  the 
wise  man,  the  Christian,  will  make  sure  of  this 
possession,  of  this  great  benefit. — Manner  in  which 
Christian  husband  and  wife  prepare  for  marriage. 
—They  enter  by  the  door  of  wisdom;  they  remain 
under  the  guard  of  fidelity. — How,  on  the  con- 
trary, with  a  number  of  persons,  interest,  vanity, 
frivolity,  insincerity  are  the  too  common  agents  of 
matrimonial  unions. — Is  it  astonishing  that  infi- 
delity installs  itself  where  everything  conspires 
against  the  benefit  of  fidelity  ?  and  if  they  com- 
plain of  being  crushed  under  the  inflexible  yoke 
of  the  conjugal  tie,  whose  fault  is  it? — III.  Grace 
of  the  sacrament. — Efficaciousness  of  this  grace 
to  correct  the  imperfections  of  nature. — Who 
are  they  that  receive  this  grace  ? — Sad,  cruel,  peri- 
lous unions  of  young  girls,  who  ally  their  faith 
with  indifference  or  incredulity. — How  they  are 
chastised  for  having  lent  their  aid  to  the  profana- 
tion-of  a  sacrament. — If  such  are  the  marriages  in 
which  the  sacrament  is  only  partially  profaned, 
what  must  they  be  when  the  profanation  is 
complete. — The  sacrileges  which  are  committed  in 
the  exchange  of  vows. — How  man  and  woman 
bring  down  upon  themselves  the  curse  of  God  in- 
stead of  His  grace. — If  they  are  unhappy  after 
that,  they  are  punished  wherein  they  have  sinned. 
— Conclusion  of  these  considerations. — Appeal  to 
young  persons, pp.  115-1 37. 


Analytical  Table  of  Contents.  231 

VI. — CELIBACY  AND  VIRGINITY. 

ACCORDING  to  certain  too  fervid  interpreters  of 
the  law  of  multiplication,  this  law  is  obligatory  on 
all  the  world  ;  it  is  a  disgrace  not  to  have  fulfilled 
it ;  it  is  a  crime  voluntarily  to  withdraw  from 
it. — To  these  advocates  of  marriage  at  all  costs 
we  demonstrate:  i.  That  the  state  of  celibacy 
and  virginity  is  a  state  desired  by  God :  2.  That 
it  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  most  useful 
ornaments  of  Christian  society. — I.  How  the  slow 
and  progressive  march  of  God  is  remarked  in  the 
preparation  of  the  matrimonial  law,  and  also  in  the 
preparation  of  the  evangelical  counsel  which  re- 
quires from  certain  privileged  souls  a  nobler  and 
more  perfect  state  than  marriage. — The  traditions 
of  humanity. — How  they  should  be  understood. — 
Apparition  of  the  virgin  Christ. — When  He  fixes 
the  legislation  of  marriage,  He  declares  His  de- 
sire to  draw  virgins  to  Himself  and  assign  them  a 
special  place  in  His  kingdom. — Interpretation  of 
this  desire  by  the  apostles. — Abundant  germina- 
tion of  virginity  in  Christian  society. — The  holy  Fa- 
thers, their  apologies  for  virginity. — Conduct  of  the 
Church. — Her  doctrine  on  the  state  of  celibacy  and 
virginity. — The  Church  proclaims  that  it  is  better 
and  happier  to  remain  a  virgin  than  to  marry. — She 
is  right. — II.  A  general  glance  over  the  vast  field  of 
regenerate  humanity,  the  domain  of  God. — He 
has  a  right  to  reserve  certain  portions  of  this  do- 
main.-What  are  these  reserved  portions  ? — Shame- 
ful celibacy  and  morose  virginity  do  not  belong  to 
the  reserved  portions  of  God's  domain. — The  vir- 


232  Analytical  Table  of  Contents. 

gins  whom  God  desires,  whom  He  knows  and 
loves,  are  those  whom  He  has  touched  with  His 
grace,  and  who,  responding  to  His  loving  advances 
by  a  free  choice,  have  become :  i .  the  copies  of 
His  perfection  ;  2.  Angels  of  the  earth  ; — 3.  The 
spouses  of  Christ : — 4.  The  living  Gospel. — De- 
velopments of  these  privileges  and  characteris- 
tics of  virginity. — Evidently,  they  place  us  in  the 
presence  of  one  of  the  most  beautiful  ornaments 
of  Christian  society. — It  is  a  useful  ornament.— 
Three  great  services  of  virginity  :  i.  the  service  of 
example,  2.  the  service  of  prayer,  3.  the  service  of 
devotedness. — We  understand  why  the  Church 
asks  from  her  priests  celibacy,  why  she  cultivates 
virgins  lovingly. — All  the  virgins  \vhom  God  loves 
are  not  in  convents,  and  those  whom  the  despising 
voice  of  the  world  calls  old  maids  shall  be  proud 
and  avenged  when,  in  presence  of  the  whole  world, 
Christ  shall  call  them  His  spouses. — Canticle  of 
Wisdom  in  honor  of  virginity,  ......  pp.  138-168. 

INDEX. 

Index  of  the  principal  errors  contrary  to  the 
dogmas  set  forth  in  this  volume,  ....  pp.  169-222. 


UCSB   LfPRARt 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LBHABY  F/WUTY 


